@TheRickWilson Nothing says I care about those Syrian babies like trying to raise money for your super PAC off of a dog and pony shit show. pic.twitter.com/95hhdEmqJJ
— Tara (@tgruka) April 7, 2017
If there’s any upside to the President-Asterisk’s “I have the biggest Tomahawks, believe me, all the best people say so” expensive shot-show last night, it would be the sound of prominent neo-Nazis and white nationalists yowling as they imagine themselves victims of a social-media-friendly Night of the Long Knives. Reports Politico:
The fractured elements of what was once called the alt-right were unified once more on Thursday night in condemning Donald Trump’s airstrike in Syria as a mistake. Or as Milo Yiannopoulos put it, “FAKE and GAY.”
This loose confederation of Web-savvy, anti-establishment right-wingers formed an important vanguard of Trump’s online support in last year’s election, and its unified opposition to the airstrike forewarns a political downside to intervention in Syria. While foreign wars tend to boost presidents’ popularity in the short term, Trump risks losing the segments of his base that flocked to his isolationist, “America First” message.
In addition to its nationalist, anti-interventionist and anti-“globalist” views, the alt-right and its fellow travelers have also displayed a marked affinity for Syria’s ally Russia, whose government has returned the love by tweeting images of the alt-right’s mascot, Pepe the Frog, from official accounts. In reacting to the airstrikes, leaders of the movement placed those ideological reflexes over their personal loyalty to Trump.
Most noteworthy were the herculean efforts of blogger Mike Cernovich, who took to the livestreaming application Periscope to rally opposition to the strike in a marathon session that went on for several hours…
Other callers offered even more disturbing theories. One man expressed his concern that the “deep state” had approached Trump and threatened to kill him and his family if he did not get in line and voiced his suspicion that “the whole thing” could be traced back to Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice. “Yeah, could be,” responded Cernovich…
Meanwhile, internet troll Charles Johnson was not prepared to accept that the U.S. really had struck at Assad, saying that a source at CENTCOM told him the strike had actually targeted the Islamic State. “I’m very skeptical of any claims made in the media on military matters,” he said. “Especially since the Iraq War.”
It's happening! pic.twitter.com/xm3eVeh2y4
— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) April 7, 2017
NYMag‘s Jesse Singal, “It Makes Perfect Sense for the Alt-Right to Start Abandoning Trump”:
… [A]ll of this should be seen not as a shocking parting of ways, but as a sensible move for the media personalities of the alt-right. Renouncing Trump, and eventually abandoning him, might actually be the most advantageous play for alt-right celebrities trying to maintain their peculiar online kingdoms, while handling the weird ramifications of having won…
…[W]hile it’s popular to conflate the alt-right and the mainstream right — say, the core GOP base — they really are two different beasts. The mainstream right will continue to support Trump because it is vested in the future of the GOP, and Trump is a GOP president. The alt-right, on the other hand, has different goals and allegiances in mind. Here are three main reasons it’s tactically smart for the alt-right’s big names to renounce Trump, if not ditch him entirely.
1. It gets them attention. One thing all the biggest alt-right accounts have in common is that they view virality as the most important goal…
2. It allows them to stay in the opposition. Those on the alt-right are, like Trump, not particularly sophisticated policy thinkers. They’re more into resentful grunts about how immigrants are bad, migration is a cancer on Western (read: white) society, and how cucks control everything. From this stance, it is much easier to criticize powerful politicians than to support them…
3. More specifically, denouncing Trump allows the alt-right to continue fueling conspiracy theories about how globalists (read: Jews) control everything.…
The outsiderism really is key here. Remember that despite the noxious anti-Semitism and racism of the alt-right, the movement has always tried to maintain a pranky, anti-establishment feel. It’s much more difficult to retain that feel when your man is in charge, running everything and bombing other countries. Much as the GOP itself learned that in certain ways it’s less fun to hold power than to criticize power, the alt-right, in its own way, seems to be internalizing the same lesson.
7/ …you're either a rube, or you're fleecing rubes.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) April 7, 2017
8/ This was the first big moment a lot of mainline Trumpers really went, "Whhhhhat?" but it ain't gonna be the last.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) April 7, 2017
Of course, that means the Proud Pranksters of FREEDUMB!!! need a new flag-carrier. Per the Daily Beast:
… White-nationalist agitator Richard Spencer, founder of the term “alt-right,” appeared to switch his support to Hawaii Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who had met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in January. On Thursday night, he tweeted, “I absolutely condemn Washington’s military strike against Syria. #Syria #NoMoreWar,” then “Tulsi Gabbard 2020.”…
While Pepe-promoter Stephen “#RedSteeze Not the WH One” Miller proposed an even less likely scenario:
Straightforward from here
1. Impeach Trump
2. Impeach Pence
3. Nikki Haley resigns
4. Paul Ryan Resigns
5. Speaker Haley
6. POTUS Haley— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) April 7, 2017
Who’d have thought The Big Swinging Boyz KKKlub would turn to a couple of not-even-white penis-lackers in their hour of torment?…
The frog breakup. pic.twitter.com/Nc8mfMsEyE
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) April 7, 2017
(h/t Jesse Singal)
Major Major Major Major
Oh, is that Milo guy still alive?
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Milo’s the kind of guy who would rather be dead than be obscure.
Also, I am laughing because the alt-right got played by Trump. It’s a bitter laugh, but at least it’s a laugh.
JGabriel
Politico via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Web-savvy? Then why do their sites always look like shit?
Bill E Pilgrim
@JGabriel: Misspelling, they meant “Web-sabe”, or “friends with Internet”.
Major Major Major Major
@JGabriel: one can be “web-savvy” and still not design-aware, although when the media uses it, “web-savvy” mostly just means “under 50.”
Bill E Pilgrim
@Major Major Major Major: Some of the worst sites I’ve ever seen were about how to build or design Web sites.
Major Major Major Major
@Bill E Pilgrim: w3schools is pretty gross looking.
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, the poor little Lebensborn crybabies. I feel so sad for them.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Major Major Major Major: Word.
I was thinking of even worse ones I’ve seen, at least that one makes a stab at some organizing principle, but yeah, it’ll do as an example.
JGabriel
@Major Major Major Major:
I guess I would argue that one could be “internet-savvy” and not design-aware, but not “web-savvy”. The web is a user-interface for the internet; it’s all about design and function. But perhaps that’s a little too pedantic a distinction these days.
efgoldman
@GrandJury:
Maybe not within days, but within months, quietly (as quietly as they can do anything).
President Bannonazi and Miller will have them back by July.
Mnemosyne
@JGabriel:
There are plenty of coders who consider themselves “web-savvy” because they can write HTML, but they can’t design for shit. It’s two different skill sets.
Mnemosyne
And since the comments are touching on web design, any useful websites or books for a girl like moi who is starting to contemplate an author blog? I want to be able to have blog posts but eventually also information about (God willing) my published books.
efgoldman
Hey kids, I have a great idea!
Why don’t all you Wilmer-bits over here on the left (so you say)…
And all you Pepe-bots over there on the right (yeah you, wwaaayyy over there)…
Get together and make a third political party?
You’ll do at least as well as the Greens, and break off the worst, most useless parts of each coalition.
Whaddya’ think? Does it work for you?
997
At risk of derailing, delurking to ask a question. I know who Wilmer is, but …. why Wilmer? It’s driving me crazy…. (tho not as crazy as he drives me)
Major Major Major Major
@JGabriel: if you want to get extremely pedantic, the web is about hyperlinks.
@efgoldman: they could be The Other Straight White Guy Party.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: what kind of information?
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Like, really basic “for dummies” design information. Enough to let me make an educated choice when I pick a WordPress template.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: you know, I don’t know any books, but what about literally a Dummies book?
jmw
I bet by next week this will be the bravest thing since Washington crossing the Delaware.
Aleta
Via AL’s links I saw this about Bannon:
-Sean Penn (Bannon backed the first movie Penn directed.) I’m not into Penn, but this cheered me up; I appreciate him writing this.
Major Major Major Major
@Aleta:
He is so weird
On my way to Guangzhou! Bye y’all.
Gravenstone
From this I can only conclude that 1) white supremacists are weird and 2) some of them seem to have a very fluid definition of “white”.
GregB
We’ll always have Pepe.
-Alt Right
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
Bannon got rich in Hollywood with a fortuitous investment in the syndication rights for “Seinfeld.”
IOW, he won the lottery but like any gambler, he’s convinced it was his personal genius that made him rich, not luck.
randy khan
While I was laughing at the Miller fantasy about installing an Indian-American woman as President, I noticed that he got the order wrong. If they impeach Trump and Pence before they replace Ryan with Haley, Ryan becomes President, not Haley.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan: also why does he have a hard-on for a Neocon?
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: What must it be like inside a person who makes a fortune on Seinfeld and decides he’ll spend it on political manipulation designed to hurt people.
Steeplejack
This post should come with breathing masks to combat the Cheeto dust wafting up from the basement.
Major Major Major Major
@Aleta: imagine being very very drunk all the time for decades, it’s probably like that.
Anne Laurie
@Gravenstone:
Yes, yes they are. But to be fair, there’s a British fascist tradition going back to at least WWI that claims subcontinental Indians were “the original Aryans” — a claim that conveniently separates Europeans from the Iranians who spread in the other direction (i.e., the “Semites”).
As Gandhi could warn them, the White Boyz will drop Gabbard or Haley in a hot nanosecond when they find a better figurehead.
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major: Have a lovely (safe) vacation, and bring back some photos for Alain!
Aleta
Is MMMM really on the way to Guangzhou?
Do you know the way
to Guangzhou Bay
I’ve been away so long.
I may go wrong
and lose my way.
L.A. is a great big freeway
Put a hundred down and buy a car
In a week, maybe two,
they’ll make you a star.
Weeks turn into years.
How quick they pass
And all the stars that never were
Are parking cars and pumping gas.
You can really breathe in Guangzhou Bay
They’ve got a lot of space.
There’ll be a place
where I can stay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnzTgUc5ycc
Major Major Major Major
@Aleta: yep, for a layover on the way to Bangkok.
The seat back has an ad for luxury marble tiles.
@Anne Laurie: thanks AL. I’m so tired, it’s a much needed vacation.
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
Not just that — a white supremacist who made his fortune off the work of several out-and-proud Jewish comedians. It was kind of a big deal at the time that Jerry Seinfeld insisted on using his last name for the sitcom and didn’t change it to something suitably goyish like, say, Jon Stewart did.
gene108
The more I think about it, the more I want the number of House seats to expand beyond 435.
This will lead to more, and geographically smaller districts, making gerrymandering harder.
Also, it will increase representation in more populated states and have the House be more representative of the demographics of the country.
Like the interstate compact, which aims to give the winner of the popular vote for President, 270 EC votes, this will fix some current problems in our politics.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Big win for the U.S. tonight, as Hillary Knight scored about nine minutes into overtime to secure their fourth straight world championship, and eighth of the last ten. Now we just need to take the Olympics next year.
And don’t sleep on Finland; they were really good this week, and just might make it a Big 3 in women’s hockey rather than a Big 2. The drop off after them is really steep, though. They beat Germany 8-0 in the bronze medal game after the Germans lost 11-0 to the Americans in the semis, and neither game was that close.
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major:
Don’t go spending all your money on the first thing that catches your eye.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
El Caganer
@gene108: The German Bundestag has 630 members, and Germany only has about a third (or a quarter? Not sure) of the population of the USA.
clay
Uh… what’s with the hard-on for Nikki Haley? She hasn’t struck me as particularly “alt” in her variety of “right.” Wouldn’t they be ticked at her for taking down the Confederate flag?
PIGL
@Major Major Major Major: I hope you have a wonderful time. I love the place. I would look for a job there if I were 10 years younger.
PIGL
@Major Major Major Major: I hope you have a wonderful time. I love the place. I would look for a job there if I were 10 years younger.
PIGL
@Major Major Major Major: I hope you have a wonderful time. I love the place. I would look for a job there if I were 10 years younger.
RandomMonster
Has anyone told the alt-right they’re not doing it right? Hitler and Mussolini were nationalists but not isolationists. “Drang nach Osten”, “Lebensraum “, etc.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, Milo’s alive. He’s just on Facebook now. Like an auntie.
@gene108: I wonder if there isn’t some way to use an algorithm or something totally impartial to redraw districts. When President Obama concludes his well-deserved break from public service, I hope he and Holder take up the cause of redistricting as they indicated they would. The current situation is intolerable.
Lurking Canadian
@Betty Cracker: I think there is a real problem with the geographic distribution of voting blocks. Most algorithmic solutions (shortest perimeter, etc) would probably make the gerrymandering worse. Democrats live in higher density parts of states. The geometrically optimal districting of a state like…Pennsylvania, say, or Texas, probably has two or three districts that are about 90% D, with all the rest 55-45 R.
More seats would help. “At large” representation per state (people in the state vote generic R or D and that state’s seats are divided in proportion) would help. But as long as land gets to vote, the party whose partisans live less densely packed is going to have a huge advantage.
Vhh
@Mnemosyne: Cernovich is free to blog because he got a $1M payout when his successful tech industry wife divirced him.