Sorry to be late getting this posted! But we had a super little meetup in Chinatown Monday night.
From left to right: JAFD, RedDirtGirl, Stuart, Me, and my partner JT .
The conversation was great, and of course it was wonderful to be among kindred souls post election and pre holiday. And a special shoutout to commenter Sue?? who, when we initially said we were going to meet at Joe’s Shanghai said it was kind of touristy and suggested this nearby alternative:
Shanghai Cuisine, 89-91 Bayard Street , 212-732-8988
Which turned out to be amazing!
Open thread follows…
JPL
NIce!
John Cole
FINALLY. THE OAK HAS BEEN LIFTED. SOMEONE ON THIS WEBSITE TAKES BLURRIER PICTURES THAN ME!
Steeplejack (tablet)
As snarly a pack of jackals as I’ve ever seen!
Poopyman
@John Cole: Congratulations! You take better pictures than some random waiter in a Chinese restaurant!
henqiguai
Good thing I knew area code 212 is a New York City area code, otherwise would be thinking ‘huh, they met up over in Tampa’ or some such.
Baud
Which one is red shirt girl again?
Hillary Rettig
@Poopyman: that’s exactly right!
Pogonip
Looks like a good time was had by all, there in the darkness.
Big R
@John Cole: I am pretty sure the word you wanted is yoke, Cole.
trollhattan
@Poopyman:
Fa-ra-ra-ra…. (Christmas Story ref)
Pogonip
@Big R: With Cole, you never know. He may very well have been trapped beneath an oak while typing that message.
Amir Khalid
The New York Times reports Trumpville is split over whether to give Secretary of State to Mitt Romney, who knows jack shit about foreign policy, or to Rudy Giuliani, who knows even less. (Caution: NYT link, so open in a private window if you can.)
I remember that around the time of the 2012 Olympics, Presidential candidate Mitt was in London to meet with the British Foreign Office (and to be rude to the Olympics organisers, but that’s another story). The FO leaked to the media that they were deeply disappointed by Mitt’s ignorance and arrogance. But Trump reckons “he looks the part”. On the other hand, Trump’s base reckons Rudy has earned something for being one of the earlier Trump toadies. Ye gods and little fishes.
Amir Khalid
@Big R:
That can’t be the word. Yolks are yellow and viscous. (Runs away.)
InternetDragons
@Amir Khalid:
Putin doesn’t want Romney, so I’m sure it’s a no-go.
Since this is an open thread, I’d love some opinions…
One of the things I decided to do after the election was set up regular monthly contributions to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. That’s been done. But the other thing I wanted to do was pick a newspaper to subscribe to, because I think that supporting journalism is so important now.
The problem is that I stopped subscribing to newspapers several years ago because of lack of said journalism. And even now I can’t quite bring myself to do it. Aside from the occasional editorial writer, I am not seeing anything out there that inspires me. The one I find myself occasionally reading on the most consistent basis is the Washington Post. But it’s very occasional.
Do any of you still subscribe to newspapers? If so, are there any out there that you believe will be effective in voicing opposition to the horrors of a Trump administration? I’m leaning toward just contributing to a fourth organization rather than doing a newspaper subscription, but I’d appreciate your thoughts.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Good to see you! My guess is that the pack of grifting, vindictive parasites who are running the transition are floating Mittens’ name to 1) demonstrate that they are capable of considering candidates who aren’t obvious white supremacists for key roles, 2) dangle a plum role before Mittens only to snatch it away as payback for Mittens’ unkind but true comments about Trump during the Repub primary, and 3) make it look like they’ve considered others before nominating the truly awful person they really want as SecState.
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Amir! Welcome back.
You wuz missed.
Please tell us you have all your fingers.
Betty Cracker
@InternetDragons: I subscribe to WaPo, TPM and my local rag. I quit the NYT a few months ago and can’t imagine a circumstance that would entice me back. The NYT and Trump appear to have a symbiotic relationship in which each plays foil for the other’s respective audience. I expect their coverage during the shit-gibbon admin to be as awful as it was during the campaign.
Pogonip
@InternetDragons: I subscribe to the local fish-wrapper. It’s decent–tells us what streets are going to be closed for repairs, that sort of thing. Can’t say what it’ll do about a Trump administration since there hasn’t been one yet. They did endorse Hillary, for all the good it did her.
RealityBites
@InternetDragons: maybe The Guardian?
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
I was never away, just lurking for a bit. And I still have all 12 fingers.
@Betty Cracker:
I know there are Republicans with FP experience qualified to be SecState. But here as in other Cabinet appointments, the Donald seems determined to pick the least qualified person in sight.
evap
@InternetDragons: I subscribe to the print version of the local rag: The Atlanta Journal Constitution. It’s actually a decent newspaper and they have been good with local stories such as the Atlanta public schools test cheating scandal and the horrible state of medical care for women in state prisons.
trollhattan
@InternetDragons:
The local rag is McClatchy, who still perform random acts of journalism and employ Jack Ohman, so no actual guilt over spending the surprisingly hefty sum. The occasional Krauthammer/Parker/Dick Whisperer reprint has me reevaluating each time.
There is no option 2 (SF Chron is dead to me).
Aleta
@InternetDragons: Not a newspaper, but Harper’s led by a mile in early reporting of the Bush administration’s torture activities/policies, extradition, black sites. And of Bush-Cheney corruption re energy-policy, Iraq invasion and private contractor abuses. Also very good on environment . Harper’s is reasonably priced and their past investigative reporting has been brave. That kind of reporting takes money to support.
Yoda Dog
@Betty Cracker: Indeed. When is Krugman going to look around and leave is my question. He’s too good for them.
I’m not sure what my revised news-digestion-strategy will be in the new reality, but I can almost guarantee I will never return to or patronize NPR, NYT or CNN ever again.
JGabriel
@InternetDragons:
It’s not a newspaper, but Talking Points Memo is seeking subscribers – and funding them may ultimately have more reach than funding most newspapers would, since it’s completely independently-owned rather than one entity in a corporate conglomeration of media properties.
——
Edited To Add:
RealityBites:
Seconded.
JGabriel
@Amir Khalid:
It may not be completely up to Donald. Many of the most – or even moderately – qualified Republicans won’t work for a Trump adminstration. Not only do Trump and his team have a penchant for the worst candidates the GOP has to offer, but their applicant pool is, for the most part, similarly restricted to the GOP’s worst.
Poopyman
@JGabriel: Thirded. I’d really like to be able to recommend a US-based news org, but after this election? Not to mention going forward into the Trump Administration.
I still might resubscribe to the WaPo, since it’s the local(ish) paper, and does promise to provide some Bezos/Trump fireworks.
JGabriel
@Aleta:
Also seconded.
Betty Cracker
Looks like Team Shit-Gibbon really is out to humiliate Romney:
Public repudiation of past heresy? I think that rates 4 bananas on the Banana Republican scale. I hope Mittens tells them to go pound sand, but it’s not like he has a track record of being courageous when it’s not politically convenient.
John Cole
@Big R: It was. I realized that later but thought it was pretty funny.
John Cole
I subscribe to the Guardian and I love it.
laura
@trollhattan: I’d personally like to use Jack Ohman to beat Dan Walters to death. YMMV.
Agree about the SF Chronicle, it’s decline has been a sad, sad thing and after Jon Carroll retired, it wasn’t worth buying. SFGate was a decent website initially, but now reduced to clickbait and celebrity crap.
Origuy
I still subscribe to the San Jose Mercury News. I often don’t read it, but my housemate does. I’ll read some of the online edition. It’s still pretty good for local news, though it’s gotten a lot thinner. Craigslist really killed local newspapers by taking the classified ads away.
SFBayAreaGal
@laura: Art Hoppe was another one of my favorite columnists
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t think I could have made this one up if I were constructing an imaginary left wing grifter
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker: I want Romney to send out a humiliating apology letter detailing all the ways he was wrong about Trump. How Trump is handsome, kind, generous, and a spectacularly insightful businessman and natural leader. And do a press availability where Trump thanks Mitt for his sincere thoughts and wonderful friendship.
Then have Trump nominate Rudy.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
In the culture of my people, we have a thing called ketuk ketampi. Maybe they’ll make Mitt do that in public.
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I knowed it! I knowed that woman couldn’t be trusted! We all knowed it!
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Surprise !
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Dr. Jill Stein
Dr. Jill Stein who?
STFU and give me your money, dumbass.
Michael Bersin
@InternetDragons:
The Kansas City Star has cut its reporting/editorial personnel (and content) so much that it’s not even worth the effort to walk down to the end of the driveway to pick it up when it’s misdelivered. We haven’t subscribed in years. Their content cuts are so bad that they contacted me for permission to use one of my blog photos of a state senate candidate they were endorsing in the August primary (I did give permission and they properly credited me).
Our small local paper cut back from five days a week to three. On taking over, the new publisher proclaimed himself “more conservative” then the previous editorial view. The only way that would be true is if he was to the right of Attila the Hun. It’s true.
I read this same publisher’s editorial immediately after the election – via social media since I long ago stopped subscribing. He whined about protests (there was a large one on campus the Thursday after the election), and strongly implied that those opposed to Trump should get over it and/or leave the country:
“….If you make $34,000 a year (after taxes) you are in the top 1 percent of wage earners in the entire world.
By that measuring stick, the average person reading this column is rich.
You can be impoverished in the United States – $11,800 annual income for an individual, $16,000 for a family of two – yet still be considered roughly average by world standards.
We don’t know real poverty in this country. Sure, there are some people who have it much worse than others, but if you want to know poverty, go to another country. Like India. Or Mexico.
With the government programs (and private non-profits) we have in place, people can usually get basic necessities. Those same safety nets do not exist in many other countries.
Although we do still have racism in this country, we have come a long way. We have a black president. Where else in our nation’s history would that have even been remotely possible?…”
Our county has a state university (@12,000 students) a military base and a population of @ 53,000. According to the census data 14.6% of the population lives in poverty. 12.2% of the population under the age of 65 does not have health insurance. Our state has not and will never expand Medicaid access.
Trump received 65% of the vote in our county, Hillary received 28% of the vote.
JAFD
Greetings from the Pinelands of NJ !
Visiting friends, helping with ongoing project, expedition to Home Despot for materials in preparation.
Great to meet Ms. Retting and Ms. RedDirt, Stuart and JT. Hope to see y’all again soon, and that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, and will hav a safe trip if you’re heading home.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just remember, as Major^4 and I discussed a day or two ago, the party’s full name is “Jill Stein presents Jill Stein as Jill Stein in Jill Stein’s The Green Party starring Jill Stein.”
ETA: “A Jill Stein Production.”
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack (tablet): Brilliant!
Michael Bersin
@Betty Cracker:
“…I think that rates 4 bananas on the Banana Republican scale….”
It rates 10 bananas if they make him do it with two guys in brown shirts wearing arm bands standing on either side of him. 11 bananas if he’s not wearing a tie and has 5 o’clock shadow.
InternetDragons
Thanks so much, all. I’ll be looking into Harper’s, The Guardian, and/or TPM. I’m also looking at Foreign Policy, which just published this article:
“10 Ways to Tell if Your President Is a Dictator”
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/23/ten-ways-to-tell-if-your-president-is-a-dictator/
It’s worth reading in its entirety, but the tl;dr is that the signs to watch out for include:
1. Systematic efforts to intimidate the media
2. Building an official pro-Trump media network
3. Politicizing the civil service, military, National Guard, or the domestic security agencies
4. Using government surveillance against domestic political opponents
5. Using state power to reward corporate backers and punish opponents
6. Stacking the Supreme Court
7. Enforcing the law for only one side
8. Really rigging the system
9. Fearmongering
10. Demonizing the opposition
Concluding paragraph: The bottom line: I am by no means predicting the collapse of democracy in the United States under a President Donald J. Trump. What I am saying is that it is not impossible, and there are some clear warning signs to watch out for. Now, as always, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Or to use a more modern formulation: If you see something, say something.
Amir Khalid
My new smartphone tells me that at my current rate of battery usage, it will be eight days before I run out of juice. (I’m a very light phone user: 20 seconds is a long voice call for me, I do nearly all my surfing on a laptop except that one time last year when i was in hospital, and I basically confine my phone Internet use to housekeeping the device.) Is there such a thing as too much battery life?
RedDirtGirl
@Baud: That would be me!
germy
Any “Shark Tank” viewers out there?
Mark Cuban was spotted dining with Bannon. And Mr. Wonderful O’Leary is considering running in Canada as a Tory (inspired by our own election results)
Michael Bersin
@Betty Cracker:
Anyone know Morse code? We should be prepared to capture the video and transcribe his blinks if Mitt Romney gets Secretary of State.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@RedDirtGirl:
I think he was making a joke about currently absent commenter redshirt.
raven
An affable crew.
germy
Ayn Rand devotee John Allison is under consideration for Treasury. He is opposed to federal deposit insurance.
Steve in the ATL
@germy:
Good fucking god.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
@Steve in the ATL:
Oh god. I heard him speak at a conference a few years ago. He is as extreme as they get. WASF.
I used to have a smallish savings deposit with BB&T. Once I heard Allison give his talk, I cashed it out and closed down the account.
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
Not without precedent. Reagan appointed a Secretary of the Interior, James Watt I think his name was, who was opposed to the Federal Government owning federal land, and tried to sell off as much of it as he could.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Combining BJ’s pet affinity with red dirt and a shirt.
front – back
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: seems like she’s opening herself up to a massive fraud charge if she doesn’t follow thru…money was collected with the SPECIFIC INTENT of funding a recount effort in three very specific states.
BBA
@Amir Khalid: “I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It’s liberals and Americans.” – Interior Secretary Watt
Well, uh, at least we somehow managed to survive the ’80s.
Groucho48
I subscribe to Time. Yes,a lot of its political articles are pure village wisdom, but, it does have regular coverage of stuff daily newspapers ignore and, once a month or so, it has amazingly good long articles on important subjects.
Yoda Dog
@Groucho48: It has shitgibbon smiling at me on the cover right now. I saw it at the grocery store. Fuck Time. THIS IS NOT FUCKING NORMAL.
ETA: I may be confusing Time and Life and, if so, I apologize. But doublefuck Life magazine too also though…
Groucho48
@Yoda Dog:
Well, to be fair, it also had the cover with a cartoon Trump melting followed a few weeks later by a cover of him completely melted. And it didn’t focus on emails and Benghazi nearly as much as the dailies did.
Yoda Dog
@Groucho48: Our bar has dropped so fucking low its on a journey to the center of the earth. Benghazi and emails were both total bullshit stories. Total 100% wingnut bullshit.
(No slight against you, sir or mam, Im just beyond furious with our collective media experiment at this point…)