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really queer Christmas
Apr 22, 2014

As JEB! is led to the guillotine he feels a deep sadness in his heart. "Slow and steady...you know" he wistfully remembers. As his head is placed into the machine, his eyes well up with tears unable to believe what is happening. he musters every ounce of strength he has as he mutters "Please...Clap"

The crowd gathered around gives in to his request as the blade strikes true and the people...they clap for Jeb!

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HIJK
Nov 25, 2012
in the room where you sleep

Dapper_Swindler posted:

jesus gently caress whedon. i loving hate trump too but shut the gently caress up about how you want to have clinton piss in your mouth.

this worship is so creepy. does he want to sleep with Hillary, is that what this is about?

Byolante
Mar 23, 2008

by Cyrano4747
Woke centrism is a mental illness

Call Me Charlie
Dec 3, 2005

by Smythe
https://twitter.com/JenAshleyWright/status/888461663451611136

:qq: MUH DECORUM :qq:

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE posted:

Every so often I tell someone that, in light of the catastrophic events surrounding the White House, I am very tentatively optimistic that Trump might resign a year or so down the road. This might happen, at least, if a great deal of forces come together to work towards that end. This person always replies, “Yeah, but Pence will be worse. At least Trump is ineffective”

I have heard this so often that it’s become the new “I can’t vote for the lesser of two evils.” Which is to say, it is the reply of people who are comfortable letting the world burn if they can’t get precisely what they want.

Because the world is already burning. If you think Trump isn’t getting stuff done, you’re not paying attention. At all.

If you look at the small things—and not just at Trump’s outlandish claims like building a wildly impractical transparent wall—every day this administration is making nightmares happen.

If you fear Mike Pence because he might take away women’s rights, well, Trump’s global gag rule is destroying healthcare for women around the world.

If you fear Pence because he seems anti-science, as of June 30 the science division of the White House is no longer staffed.

If you fear Pence because he believes that climate change is somehow a partisan issue, well, we’ve already pulled out of the Paris Accord.

If you fear Pence because he has a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign on supporting LGBTQ issues, the Trump administration has already rescinded Obama’s executive order mandating federal contractors comply with anti-discrimination laws.

If you fear Pence because you think he’ll make us all wear those Handmaid’s Tale outfits, women in the White House are already having to adjust their attire.

Everything terrible you can imagine happening under Pence is already happening.

If Trump seems ineffective, that’s just because he spends his days tweeting stupid, misogynistic statements. That is, when he’s not retweeting sentiments from outright racists.

Certainly it is not ideal to have a President who is merely polite, as Pence seems to be. Politeness should hardly be a quality worth remarking upon at all in a public official, except when the alternative is having a President who is almost gleefully offensive.

Because the alternative is very bad.

America isn’t a nation like England. We don’t have a moral figurehead that stands for the values of the country regardless of the government in power—the way Queen Elizabeth did when she vowed in June to defend the rights of the LGBTQ community in England and declined to meet with Trump.

We have the President. When we teach our children how to behave—when we tell them that one day they could grow up to be President—we tell them to look at the President as a role model. Each day that passes where Donald Trump retweets a racist comment or says something retrograde to a foreign leader’s wife is a day when more Americans grow up feeling those are permissible behaviors.

Being Able To Say Offensive Stuff Again might as well have been Trump’s campaign slogan. He promised a certain kind of privileged person that they could go through life saying whatever they wanted—however offensive—with no repercussions or apologies. Trump’s not going to be a killjoy who tells you that, no, you can’t just yell “I wanna grab your tits” at a woman, or that you can’t say “I don’t like black people,” or any of the other things that these PC snowflakes who refuse to understand that you’re just kidding around might say.

And doesn’t that seem fun, to be able to be offensive whenever you want? Doesn’t that seem like an enticing promise? Or an enticing promise so long as you’re white and male (or at least a conventionally attractive female) and straight and cisgender and able-bodied and want to be able to make fun of everyone who isn’t, without someone criticizing you? Without anyone pointing out that perhaps, just perhaps, you are punching down in the manner of a very bad person? That perhaps you are behaving, say, deplorably? Yes. It does. Finally. A President who will make no demands on Americans to be polite, moral, upstanding people whatsoever.

This ignores the fact that the people this most appeals to are the very Americans who need a leader to push them to be polite, moral, upstanding people. If the President is supposed to act as the Father of the American people, well, Trump is the kind of “fun dad” who would let his ten-year-old drink beer. Which is to say, a lovely father.

Every day, the Overton window that dictates what is acceptable to say gets pushed a little more to the right. If we continue down this path, it’s going to get worse. It’s going to become acceptable once again for men to dictate how women are supposed to appear (as when Trump declared that he wanted women at the White House to “dress like women”). We’re going to see more people in power discriminate openly against those of other religions, like the Michigan official who called for the killing of “every last Muslim” last week and who, in typical Trump-ian fashion, refused to apologize for doing so. We’ll see white men consider it a violation of free speech if they can’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars by saying hateful things about those who are not white men.

Hell, not so long ago, the President’s son confused two black congresswomen while trying to compare one of them to a stripper.

That’s the same President whose son seems to have colluded with Russia.

That’s a reminder that these aren’t merely people who have social capital. Trump and his cohorts have bona fide power. Trump is a man whose attitudes have begun to undermine the institutions that make for a free country.

When the President is on Twitter yelling at private citizens—from Mika Brzezinski to Chelsea Clinton—he is seemingly unaware that it is the President’s duty to try to insure the wellbeing of all Americans. That includes those who dislike him. It definitely would not be appropriate for him to turn his hoards of enthusiastic followers on a private individual by shouting at them in public. That’s terrifying. Yet Trump tweets at these people because he, the most powerful man in the world, wants to make life worse for a private woman who hosts a morning talk show in his country.

Using a position of power to diminish the quality of life of private individuals who have opposed you is what dictators do. That’s not just distasteful behavior, that’s terrifying. Individual citizens shouldn’t live in fear of speaking out against the government in power.

But instead of noticing that this is just flat out the behavior of a dictator, people have begun making excuses about how he has to fight back against those “bullying” him.

What Trump seems to spend most of his time “fighting” against is the free press. The press about whom Thomas Jefferson wrote to George Washington in 1792, “No Government ought to be without censors, and, where the press is free, no one ever will. If [the government is] virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defense… I think it is as honorable to the government neither to know nor notice its sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pamper the former and persecute the latter.”

When Trump yells about how everything that is not favorable news is “Fake News” and tweets out videos of himself beating up a man wearing a CNN logo, alongside the hashtags #FraudNewsCNN and #FNN, he is attempting to damage the network’s reputation. So, that would fall under the category of a person in government attempting to persecute the latter.

Though of course, that pales in comparison to Trump standing with Putin, a man who Trump previously said he condemned for “killing journalists” and laughing about journalists hurting him. Just in case you missed it, at a Press Conference, Putin pointed to journalists and asked Trump “are these the ones hurting you?” and Trump replied, “these are the ones.”

He’s saying that about the free press to a man he thinks kills journalists.

That is menacing in a way that seems almost surreal.

This is not how someone who wants to be the leader of the “free world” behaves. It’s how dictators in countries who have extremely limited press behave.

To ignore this stuff, you have to be really, really stupid. No wonder Trump said, “I love the poorly educated.”

Which may be why organizations and people associated with the GOP, like NRA leader Wayne La Pierre, are claiming that “Academic, political, media elites are ‘America’s greatest domestic threats.'" You know who “academic elites” are? Students getting a PhD in French poetry. Intellectuals are not threatening to anyone who does not want to enact a terrifying, authoritarian regime in a country. Historically, they are very threatening to those people. In most of those regimes, intellectuals are the first to go. One of Lenin’s first acts was to deport 200 prominent intellectuals on “Philosopher’s Ships.” The Khmer Rouge killed individuals who even looked smart insofar as they wore glasses, as well as those who could speak a foreign language. “The Night of the Long Batons” kicked off the dictator General Juan Carlos Onganía’s regime in Argentina in 1966. The batons were used to beat academics as they were thrown out of facilities, and had their libraries and laboratories destroyed.

When people in power start saying they don’t like well-read people, you should be terrified.

The only regimes that are interested in keeping their populace uneducated are very bad regimes. They are regimes that want a gullible populace. They want them gullible so they can rule them and exploit them absolutely.

And it’s working. Today, the majority of Republicans believe that college is bad for America. In 2015, 54 percent of Republicans thought higher education was good for the country. Today, 58 percent believe they are bad. It’s been two years. That much of a shift shouldn’t have happened in two years. Those Trump fans who love quoting the founding Fathers seem to have missed George Washington’s statement that America ought to, “Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

This current shift may have something to do with Trump’s personal Pravda, Fox News, deriding “elite universities” for being “bastions of political correctness.”

“Political correctness” is becoming a term invoked to shut down anyone who expresses disagreement with Trump’s strong-man attitudes. On CBS last Sunday, Stephen Miller declared that “our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of our President to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”

Right.

“Will not be questioned.”

You want to keep Trump around to find out what the “further actions” are? Because every day under Trump is a day when Kellyanne Conway seems more likely to shout “Ignorance is Strength.”

Worries about Trump becoming an autocrat aren’t far fetched when he’s already behaving like one and palling around with them. And he hasn’t even been President a year.

So that’s what we have to look forward to under Trump.

I don’t believe Mike Pence will behave like a dictator.

That doesn’t mean I like him.

I think he has a host of views that range from horrifying—like his record on LBGTQ rights and reproductive rights—to hilariously weird, like claiming that the Disney film Mulan was a liberal conspiracy to get more women in the military .

However, he’s also a man who seems able to respond to his opponents like a conventional American politician.

When people began making fun of Pence on Twitter for touching NASA hardware clearly labeled “do not touch” he jokingly tweeted back “Marco Rubio dared me to do it.”

That is a nice little joke.

You know who could never make that nice little joke? Donald Trump, who has claimed, “We don’t make mistakes.” That kind of insane pronouncement means that, when Donald Trump presumably accidentally typed “covfefe” into Twitter, his supporters had to go around claiming he was talking in code.

Getting back to a point where a President can admit his own fallibility—where he can laugh about messing up—is at least a step in the normal direction.

Everything seems to indicate that Mike Pence has a tolerance for dissent that is vastly greater than Trump’s. When Mike Pence went to Hamilton the audience booed him. The cast read a message to him that stated, “We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us.”

Donald Trump responded by tweeting about what a bad show Hamilton was four times, and referred to the audience’s behavior as “harassment," claiming that “The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior.”

Meanwhile, Mike Pence, who was attending the show with his children, responded by saying that, when the booing started, “I nudged my kids and reminded them that’s what freedom sounds like.”

On FOX he also said, “Hamilton is just an incredible production, incredibly talented people. And it was a real joy to be there.”

In today’s climate, that kind of conventional response feels shocking. That is because it’s not the response of someone who seems to want to throw their political opponents into the gulag.

Would I prefer to have a President who supports legislation I believe in?

Yes.

Desperately.

But that ship has sailed. It sailed on November 8. What we should be concerned with now is keeping America as we know it recognizable, so that one day we can have an election where there will be a President who supports liberal policies.

It breaks my heart that a desirable outcome now seems to be “having a president who does not overtly behave like a dictator.”

Do I think Pence will try to overturn Roe. v. Wade? Yup! Do I think he will probably try to overturn gay marriage? Yes, I do.

I also think that Trump would give away Roe v. Wade or LGBT rights in exchange for a wink from a Russian Pop Star and yell at the press for mentioning it.

I think Mike Pence will support legislation I despise. I will protest all of it. And I do not think he will ever try to dismiss my right to protest. I don’t think he’s going to try to shut down the free press. I don’t think he will publicly deride American citizens on Twitter. I think he respects the institutions that make America—if not great—at least recognizably America.

I also think it’s insane that we’re in a position where this is a quality we have to hope for from the leader of the country.

I do not like Mike Pence’s values. I think they are wicked. They are not mine. But, to borrow from Alexander Hamilton, I think he has values. And it has become clear that the only thing Donald Trump values is Donald Trump.

This is already leading to an America that, day by day, is growing unrecognizable.

Having Mike Pence as President will feel like we lost an election. Having Donald Trump as President feels, every day, like we’re losing America.

call to action
Jun 10, 2016

by FactsAreUseless
That article isn't real, it can't be. She literally called out Pence's respect of Hamilton as a reason he's better than Trump.

some plague rats
Jun 5, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
Is that worth reading? I'm guessing its not but you never know

e: haha woah alright nvm

Dapper_Swindler
Feb 14, 2012

Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

jesus. i would take pence over trump because pence is known evil(standard awful GOP poo poo mixed with moral majority dickheadness) and he wouldnt be able to unite the party for healthcare or tax poo poo. he would probaly try to gently caress over gays and go after the "morally decadent/sinful media.

this woman is fucktard though. he is not better by any means.

BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy
https://twitter.com/MrFilmkritik/status/889608095072235528

MaxxBot
Oct 6, 2003

you could have clapped

you should have clapped!!

really queer Christmas posted:

As JEB! is led to the guillotine he feels a deep sadness in his heart. "Slow and steady...you know" he wistfully remembers. As his head is placed into the machine, his eyes well up with tears unable to believe what is happening. he musters every ounce of strength he has as he mutters "Please...Clap"

The crowd gathered around gives in to his request as the blade strikes true and the people...they clap for Jeb!

Taintrunner
Apr 10, 2017

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
JEB! made a mess when his head rolled off his neck and blood splattered everywhere

JEB! was a waste, his remains cremated in the golden furnace reserved for class traitors

some plague rats
Jun 5, 2012

by Fluffdaddy

Dapper_Swindler posted:

jesus. i would take pence over trump because pence is known evil(standard awful GOP poo poo mixed with moral majority dickheadness) and he wouldnt be able to unite the party for healthcare or tax poo poo. he would probaly try to gently caress over gays and go after the "morally decadent/sinful media.

this woman is fucktard though. he is not better by any means.

Just fukkin lol forever if you think the GOP wouldn't unite behind pence, they fell in line behind trump after he spent months calling them dipshits and sellout fuckend pussies. Pence is their ideal president, he's a loving weirdo moral case who can act real decorous and respectful of the institution. Dems would be falling over themselves to work with someone who 'understands the gravity of the office'

some plague rats
Jun 5, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
If Trump was impeached all Pence would have to do is call a press conference and be like "um uh so BIPARTISANSHIP REACH ACROSS THE AISLE" and you'd see schumer and pelosi slide off their chairs

Byolante
Mar 23, 2008

by Cyrano4747
I'm the guy who thinks a wealth doctrinal Christian fundamentalist would be less bad than a guy who happily held up a rainbow flag

MaxxBot
Oct 6, 2003

you could have clapped

you should have clapped!!

Dapper_Swindler posted:

jesus. i would take pence over trump because pence is known evil(standard awful GOP poo poo mixed with moral majority dickheadness) and he wouldnt be able to unite the party for healthcare or tax poo poo. he would probaly try to gently caress over gays and go after the "morally decadent/sinful media.

this woman is fucktard though. he is not better by any means.

Nah Pence or basically any GOPer would be worse because they'd be able to pass a lot more legislation than Trump.

Byolante posted:

I'm the guy who thinks a wealth doctrinal Christian fundamentalist would be less bad than a guy who happily held up a rainbow flag

But his tweets are so mean :ohdear:

MaxxBot
Oct 6, 2003

you could have clapped

you should have clapped!!
And of course the whole loving article is about his tweets, jesus WTF is wrong with these people. They make CSPAM levels of Trump tweet obsession seem normal in comparison.

quote:

This ignores the fact that the people this most appeals to are the very Americans who need a leader to push them to be polite, moral, upstanding people. If the President is supposed to act as the Father of the American people, well, Trump is the kind of “fun dad” who would let his ten-year-old drink beer. Which is to say, a lovely father.

Let your son drink beer - BAD

Electrocute your son for being gay - Good!

MaxxBot has issued a correction as of 00:32 on Jul 25, 2017

FuzzySkinner
May 23, 2012

MaxxBot posted:

Nah Pence or basically any GOPer would be worse because they'd be able to pass a lot more legislation than Trump.


But his tweets are so mean :ohdear:

Trump is not well liked by his own party, but they shut their mouths for the most part because he helped them win an election, helps them win special elections, and gets them the supreme court.

Their base LOVES him, and it would be considered political suicide for them to not be perceived to be on board with him.

Plutonis
Mar 25, 2011

MaxxBot posted:

And of course the whole loving article is about his tweets, jesus WTF is wrong with these people. They make CSPAM levels of Trump tweet obsession seem normal in comparison.


Let your son drink beer - BAD

Electrocute your son for being gay - Good!

That and Stephen Fry saying that the US should become a Constitutional Monarchy makes me think the Liberal yearns for Caesarism.

super sweet best pal
Nov 18, 2009

Plutonis posted:

That and Stephen Fry saying that the US should become a Constitutional Monarchy makes me think the Liberal yearns for Caesarism.

I'd rather see a return to the Byzantine, they knew how to deal with woke branding.

Dapper_Swindler
Feb 14, 2012

Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

Crane Fist posted:

Just fukkin lol forever if you think the GOP wouldn't unite behind pence, they fell in line behind trump after he spent months calling them dipshits and sellout fuckend pussies. Pence is their ideal president, he's a loving weirdo moral case who can act real decorous and respectful of the institution. Dems would be falling over themselves to work with someone who 'understands the gravity of the office'

i am sure they would, i am just saying there is fuckton of division right now in the GOP that they cant even pass their awful healthcare bill. sure pence might help, but that wont fix the fissures.


MaxxBot posted:

Nah Pence or basically any GOPer would be worse because they'd be able to pass a lot more legislation than Trump.


he would absolutly be worse but he is in my opinion more fightable then trump.

Byolante
Mar 23, 2008

by Cyrano4747
You really think democrats would fight a polite fascist

an actual dog
Nov 18, 2014

democrats aren't fighting a rude fascist

Taintrunner
Apr 10, 2017

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
democrats aren't fighting

an actual dog
Nov 18, 2014

the only thing democrats fight is the left lol

SickZip
Jul 29, 2008

by FactsAreUseless

Byolante posted:

You really think democrats would fight a polite fascist

Democrats are very good about fighting polite fascists.

Its why theyre always infighting

Tokamak
Dec 22, 2004

really queer Christmas posted:

As JEB! is led to the guillotine he feels a deep sadness in his heart. "Slow and steady...you know" he wistfully remembers. As his head is placed into the machine, his eyes well up with tears unable to believe what is happening. he musters every ounce of strength he has as he mutters "Please...Clap"

The crowd gathered around gives in to his request as the blade strikes true and the people...they clap for Jeb!

You forgot the part where he hands the executioner a small turtle figurine.

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat
Also the executioner is his mom who keeps nagging him for not positioning his neck correctly on the block.

call to action
Jun 10, 2016

by FactsAreUseless

Byolante posted:

You really think democrats would fight a polite fascist

FuzzySkinner
May 23, 2012

https://twitter.com/historyinflicks/status/889187746673250305

https://twitter.com/liberalism_txt/status/889207982592057349

Oh Snapple!
Dec 27, 2005


https://twitter.com/LanaDelRaytheon/status/889626769862643714

EDIT: lol

https://twitter.com/KrangTNelson/status/889632915952369669

Oh Snapple! has issued a correction as of 16:59 on Jul 25, 2017

FuzzySkinner
May 23, 2012

https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/889815617217470465

call to action
Jun 10, 2016

by FactsAreUseless

Voted "Unsure"

unlimited shrimp
Aug 30, 2008
POLL: If it were feasible without causing additional hardship, would you support splitting America down to 323.1 million individual nations?

FuzzySkinner
May 23, 2012

https://twitter.com/Julie_Johnsoned/status/889698485863403520

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat

the trump tutelage posted:

POLL: If it were feasible without causing additional hardship, would you support splitting America down to 323.1 million individual nations?

And nuke every single one of them

call to action
Jun 10, 2016

by FactsAreUseless
I didn't know Joy Ann was into vaporwave

FuzzySkinner
May 23, 2012

Focusing on Russia while the GOP crafted this plan was a great move!

god the DNC is worthless.

e:

https://twitter.com/andEps/status/889925160911986689

https://twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/status/889923689847939076

Dapper_Swindler
Feb 14, 2012

Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

FuzzySkinner posted:

Focusing on Russia while the GOP crafted this plan was a great move!

god the DNC is worthless.

e:

https://twitter.com/andEps/status/889925160911986689

https://twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/status/889923689847939076

yeah pretty much. i honestly think trump will bring himself down and will either get ousted at some point for pence/whoever or hopefully lose 2020 or die in office. but the GOP will survive because they beat off to "the high ground" and poo poo like that.

call to action
Jun 10, 2016

by FactsAreUseless

Dapper_Swindler posted:

yeah pretty much. i honestly think trump will bring himself down and will either get ousted at some point for pence/whoever or hopefully lose 2020 or die in office. but the GOP will survive because they beat off to "the high ground" and poo poo like that.

The GOP are the ones that beat off to the high ground?

FuzzySkinner
May 23, 2012

Dapper_Swindler posted:

yeah pretty much. i honestly think trump will bring himself down and will either get ousted at some point for pence/whoever or hopefully lose 2020 or die in office. but the GOP will survive because they beat off to "the high ground" and poo poo like that.

The person to run against is not Trump, but the GOP as a whole. Hell people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are absolutely LOATHED in their home districts. They are so loving unpopular. You can point out how evil these motherfuckers are on a wide range of issues and people would go "gently caress you. I'm voting your rear end out of office"

....

The problem is? Rather than throw out actual LIKABLE human beings? We toss out people like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, etc.

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Dapper_Swindler
Feb 14, 2012

Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

call to action posted:

The GOP are the ones that beat off to the high ground?

sorry mad and tired. DNC.


FuzzySkinner posted:

The person to run against is not Trump, but the GOP as a whole. Hell people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are absolutely LOATHED in their home districts. They are so loving unpopular. You can point out how evil these motherfuckers are on a wide range of issues and people would go "gently caress you. I'm voting your rear end out of office"

....

The problem is? Rather than throw out actual LIKABLE human beings? We toss out people like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, etc.

yeah pretty much. you dont have to go full chapo socialism to win(it would loving help alot) but you need someone good. but the DNC is to busy getting loving asshurt at people saying "bend the knee" and trying to keep the west wing fugue state alive. we have to start playing in the mud with the loving elephants instead of doing loving nothing and getting mad when someone forgets a newly added phrase to the idpol bullshit.

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