The Match Cut Presidential Dog and Pony Show

[number8]

Hahaha, fantastic.

[Spinal]

Hahaha, fantastic.

Outstanding.

[number8]

Spotted at Trump Tower on Sunday:

[[ETM]]

Oliver singled him out too, I think.

[MadMan]

That guy is on point.

[Dukefrukem]

112 Protesters arrested at a Trump protest in the hipster capital of the country... and in a STUNNING revelation... only 25 of them voted.

Check out the collection of winners below

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[Sycophant]

I wish more people had voted, true. Notably, people in the hipster capital of the world would not have changed the Trump outcome based on our system. I still wish they had voted, especially if they felt like they did have a dog in this fight.

What is the point of showing us their pictures? I know I, personally, look fucking stupid and kind of ugly. Which is not to say that these people look stupid and ugly. So what are we saying here?

[number8]

So we can mock hipsters, duh.

[Melville]

I've heard plenty of compelling arguments that activism is more effective than voting in effecting social change. And my guess is that the majority of those protesters felt either (a) that voting for the lesser of two evils supports a political system they dislike or (b) that their vote would have been irrelevant because of the electoral college. In any case, I don't see a reason for implied mockery beyond Duke's perpetual disdain for all protesters.

[Melville]

I've been a Bernie Sanders fan for a long time. I think the Democratic Party needs to learn its lessons from his primary campaign. But I think it's naive to really trust that he would've won this thing easily.

All these polls showing Trump losing to Sanders are taking place in a world where Sanders wasn't subjected to a general election campaign. Where Americans weren't forced to contend with the socialist label every goddamn day. This country is still so allergic to the S-word.

I wouldn't "really trust" that it would've happened, but I would bet on it. I think the Democratic party would be foolish to look at these numbers and think that Sanders wouldn't have been more likely to win than Clinton:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...able-5263.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...able-1131.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...able-5493.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...ders-5565.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...nton-5491.html

Socialist or not, Sanders' favorability ratings consistently went up as people got to know him, and he now has the best ratings of any well-known national politician in the US. Clinton and Trump both started extremely unpopular and stayed that way. And once people knew who he was, Sanders consistently polled significantly better than Clinton in one-on-one races against Trump. Also, as Trump demonstrated, Sanders didn't need to convince everybody that his policies were right; he just needed to keep enough of the Democratic base and prevent the swing of white, working class voters that Obama had won. I don't see a reason to believe that he wouldn't have had a high chance of doing at least that. He wouldn't have done as well as Clinton with wealthy voters, and maybe with minority voters, but he would have gotten vastly more young voters and a more excited base.

Everything I've seen and read about this election leads me to believe that the independent voters who ended up winning the election for Trump weren't at all keen on him. They primarily just hated what they viewed as an out-of-touch, lying political class, and they saw Trump as an alternative to it and Clinton as a symbol of it. Sanders was the opposite of it, and based on the numbers, I think that would have outweighed America's knee-jerk reaction to the socialist label.

[Irish]

- Protests might raise short term awareness, but they're mostly performance. And without specific goals, even more useless.

- 25 out 112 is more or less in line with the national average.

- Not voting is a valid choice, and whether or not anyone votes doesn't have any impact on their first amendment rights. The idea that "you can't complain if you don't vote!" is complete nonsense and always has been. I mean, that's the point of our entire system: everyone has access to the same rights, all of the time.

- But I do wonder where the fuck these people were (1) during the campaign and (2) for the last 8 years.

- I worry the lefties in the street will burn themselves out before Der Trump has a chance to actually do anything evil.

[Irish]

And frankly, sometimes dipshit hipsters invite a level of disdain.

A lot of the people in the street and on social media taking umbrage with Trump (1) said nothing negative about Obama for the last 8 years and (2) are calling for the same reactionary bullshit that the alt-right threatened during the campaign.

It's awful, and anyone who images themselves "left" should be embarrassed by it.

[Skitch]

- Not voting is a valid choice, and whether or not anyone votes doesn't have any impact on their first amendment rights. The idea that "you can't complain if you don't vote!" is complete nonsense and always has been. I mean, that's the point of our entire system: everyone has access to the same rights, all of the time.

Fucking A right. (I did vote, btw).

[number8]

Hahaha, fantastic.

Update: Planned Parenthood confirmed that 12.5% of all donations they've received since the election were given by Mike Pence.

[Gittes]

The post-election fog of surreality has only gained strength via the trickle of dispiriting developments (or perhaps it makes more sense to refer to these as consolidations of well-established problems): Bannon, the unabated petulance of Trump's tweets, the surrogate referring to a federal registry for Muslim immigrants, Trump bullheadedly positioning himself as the only world leader to deny climate change, etc.

I respect Obama's diplomatic approach, and Hillary's "open mind" encouragement. I appreciate the idea of starting things off on a less divisive note in the interest of unity and guiding the president-elect down a more sensible route. But as someone pointed out on late night TV — I forget who — Trump's success (i.e., the success of his more boneheaded ideas) wouldn't yield success for the country (of course, that's not the kind of success Obama had in mind when he made his remarks).

It's an obvious point, but it underlines the difficulties involved in hoping for the best, or even in trying to actively counsel Trump. Obama recently said Trump is not ideological and is more pragmatic, but this doesn't necessarily mean that the latter can be counted on to be consistently receptive to stuff like decency and reason. Also, as per John Oliver's latest episode, it's important to resist the normalization of troubling events. Bernie's stated position seems, in fundamental and basic terms, to embody the most sensible approach: cooperate in cases where the proposed methods and ends are reasonable and humane, resist when said methods and ends are sodden with hate and nonsense.

[number8]

I received an email from the Indonesian consulate of US last night that basically amounts to "Please don't listen to speculations and panic just yet, we'll let you know when you should be worried."

[number8]

Holy shit, Donald Trump thinks he's Tony Stark.

[number8]

https://twitter.com/Rrrrnessa/status/799242938488385536

[Irish]

I saw that twitter thread last night and she raises a good point. I feel stupid for not realizing it before, but if they do the "Muslim registry" thing, they'll do it in a non-obvious way that's invisible to the white middle-class.

So no protests and no fake registrations, and of course the Dems will support it (because they've supported that sort of thing before).

[Ezee E]

I saw that twitter thread last night and she raises a good point. I feel stupid for not realizing it before, but if they do the "Muslim registry" thing, they'll do it in a non-obvious way that's invisible to the white middle-class.

So no protests and no fake registrations, and of course the Dems will support it (because they've supported that sort of thing before).

Who needs registrations when you can let Facebook and mobile phones do it all for you at this point?

Yes, I'm being coy, sorta.

[TGM]

[Irish]

Ah, yes. Jon "But I'm just a comedian" Stewart.

Despite a couple of good points, somebody remind me again why anybody should take this guy seriously? He's got to be one of the most disingenuous motherfuckers in media.

It's too nuanced for a 5 minute bit on a morning show, but I wish Charlie had asked if Stewart thinks there's any connection between The Daily Show and Facebook "fake news" / shitposts. Let's see him try and spin that.

Anyway, it's been a week and it already feels like a year. Following the waves of nonsense coming out of New York and DC is gonna burn me out and force me offline.

[number8]

RIP Manhattan's 5th Avenue for the foreseeable future.

http://gothamist.com/2016/11/18/trum..._forget_it.php

The surrounding businesses can't be pleased.

[Gittes]

Ugh, that "Apologize!" edict in Trump's recent tweet is just ridiculous — clueless and imperious; it's the censure of a Disney villain. There's also something alarming and disturbing about how he threw that in there.

He's demanding recompense for this? What? If the tweet doesn't appear below, here's a direct link.

[number8]