Yes. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry will be the head of the very agency he said he wanted to eliminate, but couldn't remember its name (Department of Energy).
We must have transited through a wormhole into some kind of bizarro inverted universe where everything is the opposite of what it should be. Where is Superman to fly backwards around the world at Super speed to restore the previous OS? At this point I'd settle for a centrist military coup. Colin Powell are you listening?
Decades from now, when the election of 2016 is distilled to its essence, what will that be? Many hoped the central lesson would be a shattered glass ceiling and a cementing of the Obama legacy. An expansion of rights and tolerance.
There is no way to sugarcoat it. The election of Donald Trump is a brutal affront to women, people of color, Jews and Muslims, and all who value kindness and tolerance. Paranoia and divisiveness won the day. If we feared that the Trump campaign would give white nationalists and other political predators a road map for a lasting presence as a disruptive opposition, we have instead handed them the keys to the Oval Office, and the nuclear codes.
In the horrible months leading up to the election, there were moments we all crossed our fingers and hoped the Trump campaign's predilection for inflaming bigotry might, ultimately, improve the health of the body politic. Maybe he represented a high fever that, once broken, would leave us more immune to old hatreds. Maybe, just as videos of police shootings shoved the most heinous forms of structural racism into the social-media feeds of white America, so would the actions of Trump and his most virulent supporters cast a light on an ugliness that needed to be confronted to be at last overcome.
Except, it seems this ugliness was far, far more pervasive than we had let ourselves imagine. With every chant of "build the wall," with every racist tweet, with every "Trump that bitch" T-shirt, his supporters hardened—to the horror of more than half of those who voted (and many who didn't), and despite the entreaties of political, diplomatic, scientific, and economic experts.
It would be counterproductive to say, as some have, that all those who voted for Trump are stone-cold racists. People voted for him for various and complicated reasons. But it must be said that all who voted for Trump did not find naked bigotry and misogyny to be disqualifying. Some discounted it, and some thrilled to it. That is gutting.
The next weeks and months and years will be spent analyzing how we got here. It will be a grim accounting for every institution, and a painful airing of recriminations among families and friends.
As the author and comedian Baratunde Thurston put it, Trump's campaign is best understood as a denial-of-service attack on our political system. Despite or perhaps because he is a thin-skinned, shallow narcissist, he instinctively found weaknesses in our national firewall. He knew that with 16 primary opponents, each would happily support his attacks on the manhood, looks, and dignity of the others, until it was too late and the momentum was on his side.
He realized that his bombastic, bigoted statements would be heralded by some corners of the media, mocked by others, and given wall-to-wall coverage by all. Newsroom traditions of putting separate teams of reporters on each candidate also helped ensure that Hillary Clinton's email scandals were given the same weight as the mountain of evidence of Trump's wrongdoing. The nation's great newspapers and networks did vital work, but when it came to proportionality, they utterly failed. And the obsession with polling aggregators and fancy widgets, coupled with the failings of the polls themselves, lulled people into slacktivism, inaction, or even showy obstructionism.
And social media failed us most of all. Even as armies of Trump's toxic trolls—some real, some bots—started harassing reporters, activists, and ordinary people with racist and anti-Semitic images and general filth, Twitter twiddled its thumbs. Even as Macedonian teens eager for ad revenue exploited Facebook's algorithm by flooding the zone with fake news designed to appeal to Trump supporters, Facebook did nothing. Actually, it did do something: It repeatedly changed its algorithm and protocols in ways that may have enabled fake news. And oh yeah, the founder of virtual-reality pioneer Oculus went so far as to gleefully fund a "shitpost" factory to promote Trump. Deliberately or not, tech tools were used to pervert our political dialogue, and a good chunk of the tech elite either didn't care or relished it in the name of "disruption." Consider, too, that venture capitalist (and Facebook board member) Peter Thiel's yearslong secret campaign to eviscerate Gawker Media took out the news organization best positioned to challenge the tech titans and root out organized trolling, just months before the election.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: cb shuffle
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 11:55 am
You really can't make this
You really can't make this stuff up.
At least Trump found someone dumber than himself for his cabinet.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: judit adminj
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 11:56 am
`Some of these announcements
Some of these Cabinet announcements bring me perilously close to throwing up.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Ken D. Portland_ken
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 12:03 pm
Bryan Cranston's appearance
Bryan Cranston's appearance as the new head of the DEA on SNL this week was spot on.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Def. High Surfdead
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 12:12 pm
We must have transited
We must have transited through a wormhole into some kind of bizarro inverted universe where everything is the opposite of what it should be. Where is Superman to fly backwards around the world at Super speed to restore the previous OS? At this point I'd settle for a centrist military coup. Colin Powell are you listening?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Johnny D skudebro
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 12:12 pm
I started to get dizzy,
I started to get dizzy, listening to above announcement while driving to work. Deep breaths and switching to music helped.
Call me whatever names you want, but that was my psycho-physical reaction.
Twitter tantrum boy really appears to want to break stuff...important stuff, IMHO.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Def. High Surfdead
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 12:17 pm
Or are these really Vlad's
Or are these really Vlad's Picks?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Johnny D skudebro
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 12:23 pm
DOE Mission Statement for
DOE Mission Statement for Perry (or others) who may be interested (Yes, DOE IS in charge of Nuclear Safety and Security):
http://energy.gov/mission
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: That’s Nancy with the laughin’ face Nancyinthesky
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 04:51 pm
Decades from now, when the
Decades from now, when the election of 2016 is distilled to its essence, what will that be? Many hoped the central lesson would be a shattered glass ceiling and a cementing of the Obama legacy. An expansion of rights and tolerance.
Instead, a small electoral majority chose a candidate who openly embraced bigotry, who slurred war heroes and mocked the disabled, who bragged of sexual assault, who said he'd roll back the protections of a free press, who was cheered on by white supremacists, who said he'd upend our alliances and the world's long-overdue climate deal, and who is ignorant and cavalier about the basics of safeguarding a nuclear arsenal.
There is no way to sugarcoat it. The election of Donald Trump is a brutal affront to women, people of color, Jews and Muslims, and all who value kindness and tolerance. Paranoia and divisiveness won the day. If we feared that the Trump campaign would give white nationalists and other political predators a road map for a lasting presence as a disruptive opposition, we have instead handed them the keys to the Oval Office, and the nuclear codes.
In the horrible months leading up to the election, there were moments we all crossed our fingers and hoped the Trump campaign's predilection for inflaming bigotry might, ultimately, improve the health of the body politic. Maybe he represented a high fever that, once broken, would leave us more immune to old hatreds. Maybe, just as videos of police shootings shoved the most heinous forms of structural racism into the social-media feeds of white America, so would the actions of Trump and his most virulent supporters cast a light on an ugliness that needed to be confronted to be at last overcome.
January/February 2017 Issue
Except, it seems this ugliness was far, far more pervasive than we had let ourselves imagine. With every chant of "build the wall," with every racist tweet, with every "Trump that bitch" T-shirt, his supporters hardened—to the horror of more than half of those who voted (and many who didn't), and despite the entreaties of political, diplomatic, scientific, and economic experts.
It would be counterproductive to say, as some have, that all those who voted for Trump are stone-cold racists. People voted for him for various and complicated reasons. But it must be said that all who voted for Trump did not find naked bigotry and misogyny to be disqualifying. Some discounted it, and some thrilled to it. That is gutting.
The next weeks and months and years will be spent analyzing how we got here. It will be a grim accounting for every institution, and a painful airing of recriminations among families and friends.
As the author and comedian Baratunde Thurston put it, Trump's campaign is best understood as a denial-of-service attack on our political system. Despite or perhaps because he is a thin-skinned, shallow narcissist, he instinctively found weaknesses in our national firewall. He knew that with 16 primary opponents, each would happily support his attacks on the manhood, looks, and dignity of the others, until it was too late and the momentum was on his side.
He realized that his bombastic, bigoted statements would be heralded by some corners of the media, mocked by others, and given wall-to-wall coverage by all. Newsroom traditions of putting separate teams of reporters on each candidate also helped ensure that Hillary Clinton's email scandals were given the same weight as the mountain of evidence of Trump's wrongdoing. The nation's great newspapers and networks did vital work, but when it came to proportionality, they utterly failed. And the obsession with polling aggregators and fancy widgets, coupled with the failings of the polls themselves, lulled people into slacktivism, inaction, or even showy obstructionism.
And social media failed us most of all. Even as armies of Trump's toxic trolls—some real, some bots—started harassing reporters, activists, and ordinary people with racist and anti-Semitic images and general filth, Twitter twiddled its thumbs. Even as Macedonian teens eager for ad revenue exploited Facebook's algorithm by flooding the zone with fake news designed to appeal to Trump supporters, Facebook did nothing. Actually, it did do something: It repeatedly changed its algorithm and protocols in ways that may have enabled fake news. And oh yeah, the founder of virtual-reality pioneer Oculus went so far as to gleefully fund a "shitpost" factory to promote Trump. Deliberately or not, tech tools were used to pervert our political dialogue, and a good chunk of the tech elite either didn't care or relished it in the name of "disruption." Consider, too, that venture capitalist (and Facebook board member) Peter Thiel's yearslong secret campaign to eviscerate Gawker Media took out the news organization best positioned to challenge the tech titans and root out organized trolling, just months before the election.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/fight-like-hell-trump-racism...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: That’s Nancy with the laughin’ face Nancyinthesky
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 04:58 pm
Highly probable, Surfdead.
Highly probable, Surfdead.
I can see Russia from my house..
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: aiq aiq
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 07:16 pm
Thank you for that link,
Thank you for that link, Nancy.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Hitchhiker awaiting "true call" Knotesau
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 07:17 pm
Will we be alive decades from
Will we be alive decades from now?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Charlie The Deep Unreal
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 08:08 pm
Michael Brown Ex FEMA
Michael Brown Ex FEMA Director named personal assistance to Rick Perry
What is everybody worried about?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Thumbkinetic (Bluestnote)
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 08:38 pm
Cheeto Mussolini wants to be
Cheeto Mussolini wants to be boss of his "rivals".
Ain't all that complicated.
They kiss his ass; he keeps them "relevant".
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Willie McD Olhobo
on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 – 08:53 pm
Thought we seen the last of
Thought we seen the last of brownie.hes looking under every rock, Palin is gonna get something also.