potatoradio

Same here. I am so thankful this forum opened up and we have a place to collect our thoughts. It's heartening to see so much passion and speaking out. I think I may survive the next few years in part because of you guys. Cheers. *lifts glass of cold duck* *moves bottles of champagne originally intended for election night down to basement fringe to be consumed at the first victory for the resistance* Today, I also want to flat out say that I am stunned at both the success of the Stein vote count fundraising and that it has given even my cynical mood a huge lift. I am so thankful that she funded her goal for a recount in WI and is on her way to meeting her goal for the other two states. I am thankful, even if it doesn't change the results: 1. If the results are legit, I at least know that our process was safe and integrity preserved. 2. That amount of fundraising in such a short time sends a BIG message. There's a large segment of the population that's not going to simply sit back and handwave the suspicions of electorate officials. 3. It sends a YUGE message to agent orange and his goons. We have the ability to raise big money, fast. We outnumber you. There are more people watching you than you think. Your resistance is now far greater than HRC. 4. It got a lot of press to take it seriously and pay attention instead of waving it away as "oh, that silly third party goofball." 5. I see what can happen when a clear message is sent that reaches across party lines to achieve a goal. And I will also say this act, so far, clearly shows a commitment to progressive values and election fairness, so hats off, Stein. You've got my attention and you've opened my mind. For that, I am truly thankful. The Cryptkeeper Dementor (KAC) has a Tweet out there saying something about how HRC is the one who can't accept the results. Er....Ms. Death Eater? HRC had nothing to do with it, but you go right ahead with that tired old saw. The Advocate posted a hilarious collecton of Tweets to Stein's efforts. Happy Thanksgiving!

Attention, Susan Sarandon - Want to put up any of your money to support your candidate's efforts or don't you care about election now?

I hear ya - I don't know what happens to the money if the goal isn't reached, so that's why I did a real "grass roots" donation. Not cynical at all - my motto for the next few years is "distrust and prove why."

FWIW, Jill Stein will ask for a recount in the contested states if she can raise the money. If you're so inclined: donation to help raise funds for election recount. Unlikely to raise the full amount needed in the time span required, but I can afford, as of now, to exhaust any possibility. I think the orange thing is doing all of this 'beat the librull media" circus to distract from any possibility of a vote recount getting any press. But hey, here's a thought - he's too far gone mentally to be as focused as Hitler was. He's just as crazy and delusional, but he doesn't have the...ah...stamina...as that other monster responsible for the murder of millions of innocents. So, yeah, it's gonna be on republicans and his white supremacist ghouls to hurry up with those damn trains already... Resist. Resist. Resist. Kurt Eichenwald points out that Russia is already moving missiles into Kaliningrad within striking range of Germany and in response to NATO "aggressions." Because, you know, move along folks, and buy your Trump tokens and talk about how mellow he seems as the Russians prepare to attack our allies and form a great, beautiful alliance with the thing fouling up the oval office.

We have one senator, Elizabeth Warren, not letting any of this bullshit go without at least demanding some investigation: E.W. asks federal agency for review of Trump mess Go, Elizabeth Warren. The sky will never be green in your world, thank g-d.

Thank you. Just did - subscribed! Same with Newsweek, which I'd relegated to the sad stack at my dentist's office, but Kurt Eichenwald also had some good journalism work during the election circus and he's not letting up on Twitter. Plus, my wife loves to read anything, so she'll be thrilled at another mag coming to our house. I'll have to let her know my account info with Wash Po so she can get on there, too. The NYT will wait until I see whether they produce any news journalists or normalize the Onceler. Also signed up for emails from vox. Nuanced, in depth, provocative articles. Yeah, it's still keyboard warrior stuff, but I'm putting my money where my....er...fingers...are? Nevermind.

So, big test for the NYT. Going forward, after DT's little whine about how they should make his job easier (the hell?), will they double down on investigative reporting on the potentially impeachable acts the orange thing is waving in our country's face? They have the money. They have the power. DT would like them to think they don't, but facts are still facts and the sky is still blue. I didn't expect such a bellwether test so soon, but why not wake them up sooner rather than later? Are you awake, NYT? We'll find out. Meanwhile, the journalists who report the real story about DT turning this country into his own profit machine (kinda like the Onceler being in charge - buy my Sneeds! Buy my spawn's Sneeds! You need a sneed!) are needed now more than ever. I am reading more articles that point to real activism, community involvement and investigative journalism as the only way to save what might remain of our country if DT doesn't sell us out to whoever bids highest for us. I think, maybe, we've reached as far as we can go with corporate conglomerate media. They may be a little slow and hazy to hear the alarm clock, but it's ringing. Sleep time's over. Get up and be the free press your soldiers risk their lives for. Never normal.

Perhaps the press should learn to visit this site for a flattering photo: Can you tell the Donald Trump from the raw chicken? So, I read the tweets from the bullshit meeting with the NYT and I'm just...goddamn it, what the fuck? Let me get this straight - the Times should go easy on poor widdle Donnie because that will make his JOB EASIER?? Say no, NYT. For the love of all that is free in this country, SAY NO and say it with some American pride. Get after this fuckhead. Call him out. Don't let him be right when he says he can and will do anything he pleases. He doesn't know jack shit about much except how to decipher the world as "winners" and "losers" and "suckers." Like any good psychopath. He's a bigly, yyyugely good sociopath. I realize we're a great melting pot, but sociopath tastes awful even covered in chocolate.

Dear orange psychopathic pantload of shit - This country in no way needs to be run like a business but because you don't seem to understand much else, I'm temporarily allowing myself to engage in this stupid metaphor. I didn't hire you - my ill informed coworkers who wanted "change" did. But the thing is, you still work for me, the voter. That's whatcha said at "your" convention, right? You're going to work for me? OK, then, you should know that a big majority of my coworkers also didn't want you. You got in by a loophole that, ironically, is supposed to protect us from the likes of you and some of us are going to request looking into that, but in the meantime.... As my "employee," please know that you will be accountable to me and the millions of others like me who, frankly, hate your fucking guts and see no reason to show you any respect or give you a chance or treat you like an ordinary employee. There are more of us that you want to admit and you'd like to believe you can handwave away all of our power, but you can't. Because it will likely take you a loooooong time to figure this out, if you ever do, consider yourself on strict probation. We are watching you all. the. time. We will find the truth and demand action and we won't quietly sit here. The world is counting on us not to pucker up and accept your fascism and greed as normal. I, and millions like me, won't disappoint them. Democracy can't be 'trumped' or it isn't a democracy. We don't have a monarchy in this country and we don't want one. You're not a CEO. You're a civil servant. Go read your job title. You don't want to try to do this job with over half the country trying to do everything they can to take you down. You're too fragile to handle that and you may end up in a rubber room and, well, that would be...SAD. And you do want to succeed in this job, don't you? OK, that was a long winded babble, but I hear that sometimes if you scream into the abyss long enough, it screams back. Or something.

Bwahhhh haahhhH!! Since I've never had the pleasure of being part of a democracy trying to survive under a psychopathic pantload, I'm not entirely sure what this means, but the fascist Breitbart is running its first "broken promise" story about Trump "not pursuing" Clinton's emails. I won't link to that disgusting piece of Breitbart shit. I'll let the Washington Post do this job. If you judge by the comments posted on the fascist site, little Trumpy Wumpys are already losing their minds about this. Trump you, assholes. Also, thanks to Rachel Maddow for pointing out that his whole promise was ridiculous because he NEVER had any power to do anything. It's all an illusion of power, just as it was when he "demanded" Obama's birth certificate. I actually wish I did tweet because I would love to ask Joy Reid her thoughts on orange crappy pants' screaming at the media yesterday. She wasn't there. She has no reason to hold back her opinion or not get it on record. Guess I'll have to email if there's any chance they still use that old Luddite technology. And must look into Wash Po subscription.

Thanks. Done. Next, tracking down ways to contact the corporate media to ask them to please not end the Fourth Estate with a whimper. Corporate money talks. I hate to say it, but any weapon against that orange thing is worth using.

Agree 100%, @Danny Franks Interesting article from Ezra Klein - Dems, winning the popular vote is what the thugs want you to forget. Don't let them. Live your truth: the majority of the country wants your platform.

Not normal. The sky is not green. Keep speaking out. Keep the grassroots activism going. We're not losing this democracy without a fight, you fascist thug. I WAS getting slightly back to normal grief-wise, but this pretty much set me back.

I will just say that I hope to hell these media reps double down on investigative reporting and view his tantrums as just that and insist that if he ever pulls shit like that again that they will not be bullied into what they cover and then go all out on scandal reporting.

According to this (unless anyone wants to prove this is fake), this off the record meeting was absolutely nothing like Obama's and there is every reason to panic about losing free press. Tell me this is fake, please.

What the everloving fuck is this? So, orange thing and the Cryptkeeper call major network reps to an "off the record" meeting and then report that it "went well?" And he's going to have a meeting with the NYT next? The rumor is that it is to discuss access to his rumpness. I would bet money that he's going to limit access based on how he's portrayed. We're about to find out if we have any scruples in the MSM left or if the official transition to propaganda normalizing hate machine is cued to go....

*facepalm* Dear NYT: No, they aren't. An amoeba could do it.

I have, too. I'm leaning toward "hold their feet to the fire" and make our expectations known that they are responsible for reporting not only what the orange thing says and what they want to report to earn favor with his campaign, but to report honest questions and investigations into an administration the public has a lot of concern with. Concerns about racism, fascism, corruption, violence, revoking of civil rights....all of those are pretty top concerns for a lot of their readers and we need them to keep those stories covered or they will indeed fail us.

The HRC campaign did some early ads here in MN that I didn't understand why they dropped. HRC talked about local companies that moved their headquarters overseas and how she would make them accountable for keeping those jobs here. I don't know why the campaign stopped doing that. I thought those were some the exact messages we needed to hear - not just blue collar workers, but white collar ones, too. I'm trying to think of ways our local Dem and Green party could unite around community outreach and education so that people understand that this isn't a binary issue. We are not going to have a second coming of the industrial revolution and giant corporations have quashed small businesses. We need to get real, not alarmist, but real about this. When the marriage amendment failed here in 2012, it was defeated because many institutions - churches, community ed groups, and corporations/businesses - came together for discussions and it became pretty clear that Minnesotans didn't want to oppress people they knew and neither did the institutions they supported. I think people need to understand not only that Democrats/progressives oppose Trump not because of his...well, we all know his bullshit...but why we oppose it and what we can do better on a specific issue like jobs for mining country and farms. Stress how we can protect their ability to earn a living and show exactly why the Trump policies fail.

I'll be watching SNL with a lot more side-eye and interest instead of being simply entertained. I'll be watching the WU and any political sketches with an eye toward whether they're going to start to portray Trump as just a dumb, but basically good guy who kinda, whoopsies, meanders into extreme territory, or if they're going to keep up with the nuance and intelligence I thought they did last week. If they start any of this "aw, guess he's not so bad" acceptance, I'm going to be very disappointed. As for the MSM, I hope there is less attention paid to the most outlandish and blatantly racist/fascist stuff he says and promises to do and more scrutiny of how the right wing Republicans are trying ot use him to push a less obvious, but just as harmful, agenda. The big attacks on civil liberties get all the attention, but it's the quieter erosion they hope people won't notice. It's complex and nuanced and invisible if you don't look for it. I hope the MSM doesn't make us dig for it. Put that shit front and center.

Thanks! Done. With many eyerolls at message. Thank you, thank you, New York. I am going to check and see what our governor and mayors are doing here. I believe our Mpls mayor has spoken out against deportation, but I haven't seen the actual story. If they haven't spoken out, I'm going to write them and ask them to do so. Hell, I'm going to ask our city council to speak out about it. Of course the orange thing can't put together a unifying speech. he's too busy being butthurt over SNL and the cast of Hamilton's "bullying" stupid ass Pence. If he had one brain cell and one tiny bit of an open mind, he'd realize that he could probably put an end to all of the ridicule by simply being reasonable and putting on his listening ears, but that's not the change his goons want. So, suck it up, buttercup. Save your tears for your private tower. I just realized (doh) that he's probably been "groping" the country for a quite a while - he was probably testing the waters with his demands for Obama's birth certificate. He's a toddler who wanted to see how far he could go and when he got so much attention and flattery from the right wing fascists, he really realized, the way sociopaths detect prey, that this country could very well be up for grabs. Well, we're going to find out if our democracy has a way to tell him no.

My faves were the open, WU, the parade and the bubble. The political humor was tight and on point and nuanced. And, as shown from the Tweet above, it made Donnie whine and hurt his wittle ego. If the humor keeps on this path, this show might keep me a little more sane over the next few years. And the bubble was so spot on I cringed the whole time, even as I laughed. That's what the best of comedy can do, I think. My laughs were a little gallows humor, but I needed it. I hope they continue with the well done political humor.

I think I'm going to start thinking of the NYT and the WashPo as bellwether sources. The more they normalize Trump or pretend they can't call him what he is, or publish articles or opinions critical of the OrangeFurher or his ilk, the more I'm going to assume they're being gagged or bribed or hardlined down a particular narrative. And Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid are my failsafes. If they leave/get fired or start "toning down" their leftist leanings? Signal, to me, to assume we've all but lost the freedom of the press and are reduced to propaganda. Meanwhile, I want to thank the poster (I can't find the post right now) who pointed me to the video of the Irish Senator, Aodhán Ó Riordáin, speaking out on Trump's fascism. Not only did that help me find The Irish Times, but it gave me a perfectly new and healthy "guilty" crush. I would go straight in a heartbeat for that man. I found another article at the Irish Times that was comforting - reminds me that if our democracy can't withstand Trump, than it wasn't much of a democracy in the first place.

The infighting may save our democracy for a little while, or at least distract the lunatics running the asylum long enough to prevent them from uniting and trying to make their hallucinations law of the land.

I have a question for any Greens, Independents or Bernie supporters here - what are your thoughts for moving forward? The Dems didn't win and there are many reasons for that. Can we revolutionize and still unite under one party? Are you more concerned with long term progressive progress or short term elections? I've thought about attending a local Green party meeting to hear what they have to say, as well as the Democratic party meeting. I'm hoping to start understanding whether we all view the election outcome as a disaster and where there are opportunities to build bridges to strengthen our resistance and preserve common long term goals. I ask sincerely - maybe I'm asking the wrong questions (and feel free to tell me that), but I appreciate anyone who has thoughts to share.