I have no problem with Meryl Streep having her say about what she thinks of our incoming president. I think it’s fine that screenwriters for the show Blackish decided to use their platform to make an anti-Trump statement, and I see no problem with promoting the show during NFL playoff games. However, when I go look at today’s Memeorandum, I notice that you have to scroll quite a way down the page before you see any articles dedicated to Trump’s nominees to serve in his cabinet. All anyone seems to be talking about are these stories about Streep, and rednecks who are pissed at blacks for badmouthing the president-elect during their Houston Texans game, and Kellyanne Conway spinning all of this nonsense the best she can.
I think this is how Trump managed to pull off his miracle election. People can’t focus on the important things. There’s always something new to obsess over instead of staying on message. Do you care more about angry Trump voters who call the National Football League (NFL) the Black Lives Matter Football League (BLMFL), or are you more concerned with the idea of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III running the Department of Justice?
Donald Trump didn’t nominate Meryl Streep as his Director of Central Intelligence or his Secretary of Treasury. He nominated a full-on wingnut and a Goldman Sachs veteran foreclosure specialist for those jobs. So, every second wasted on Meryl Streep is a benefit to Trump and the prospects for his nominees to sail through the confirmation process with little fuss.
Of course Trump wants to talk about the Golden Globes. He wants you to talk about him talking about the Golden Globes.
It’s a simple game he plays, and it’s hard to combat it.
Some self-awareness is a start, however. Don’t go chasing his rabbit down every hole.
Yeah, but I don’t think it’s a conscious bait and switch on his part. From what it seems this is basically how he thinks.
Also, this was updated at Vox recently and I think it illustrates why I just didn’t find the “this is not normal!” line very effective Life in authoritarian states is mostly boring and tolerable
Of course that’s unless you’re one of the vulnerable groups that the regime targets for abuse like latinos or Kurds or Uyghers or Rohingya, but we’re talking about a majority of Americans.
LOL He must have been channeling Glen Ford
Republicans are too inept, too “crude and petty, too ugly for global prime time,” to make things booooring. They overreach and crash things. Though Mitt might have.
Dems, the “cosmopolitan, global obsessed,” are much better at keeping the china intact.
Both are corporate parties. Or obsessed billionaire’s pet projects.
I liked your link. Wise.
I think Trump has very good instincts which which fights are interesting to people. He is as able to drive the agenda as any politician I have ever seen.
The Democrats, and I include myself in this, have not yet been able to fashion a very effective response.
I think Meryl’s speech was important because it reached a very wide audience. She used a concrete example, one that’s verifiable on tape, and it shows trump’s lack of compassion and hateful mentality. These and other public statements need to be put out there for the general public.
As for the Cabinet positions, imagine trying to work that into a speech at an awards show or tv program’s dialogue. Late night hosts like Stephen Colbert are doing their best to get the word out that the choices trump made are terrible examples of human beings. It’s been all over political sites, but you can’t expect most people to go there.
It’s tough, I know, and probably John Q Public will not attempt to figure out how to contact their Senators to protest the nominated Cabinet people. I downloaded a list of all of my representatives from the city council to the Senate and I’m making calls.
We can operate and focus on more than one thing at a time. We just need to make sure others will do the same.
This whole “don’t be distracted!” narrative is frustrating and simplistic, though. I know that’s not what the post is totally about, but I can focus on multiple things at once. I can’t control everyone else, however. If they get hung up on the shiny object of the day, calling them dupes isn’t going to help. All I can do is amplify what I think is outrageous, and say why.
“WTFU SHEEPLE” has always been an empty, superficial exhortation. Performative wokeness doesn’t put the butts in seats. If someone gets angry enough at Trump because of the Streep thing and ends up calling their congresscritter about Sessions because they’re that fed up, I won’t complain. I don’t care how someone gets there as long as they get there.
The Democrats using various parliamentary tactics to delay and obstruct Trump’s garbage cabinet appointees needs to run on a parallel track to the general public opposition to Trump. Keeping Trump’s public image down is a vital component to winning substantive political fights that are otherwise not likely to capture the attention of the public outside of the political press. Shying away from public criticism of Trump’s general shittiness or his ties to Russia’s hacking or his criminal history or what-have-you in order to focus on one single issue is simply political malpractice and can only help him.
The various attacks create a negative impression that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Anyway, good luck urging popular celebrities to hold fire given an opportunity to speak out against fascist shitheads. Shoveling back the tide with a spoon there.
I’d feel better if Meryl Streep was making a modern day version of Silkwood.
O/T but Breaking…”I’m stunned– Bernie supporters in California organized hard after the primary and today their work paid off. From my counting, coordinated slates of Bernie supporters swept at least 15 assembly districts of California Democratic Party elections today (dozens more contests to be determined tomorrow). That’s 14 delegates to the State Central Committee in each of those 15 districts with at least 4 additional districts showing wins of 9 or more delegates. That’s how it’s done! Major credit to Margaret Okuzumi and Katrina Bergstrom among others for pulling off this historic event!” (Max Cottterill FB)
great news, thanks for posting.
Don’t you know than Sanders supporters are the reason we don’t have a Clinton third term? Must be Russian hacking. Now they’ve taken over California. BOMB MOSCOW!
I think a place to start would be ignoring his Twitter feed and focus on what he’s doing is a good place to start, especially once he takes the oath of office.
What’s interesting here is the return of a familiar Trump idiom (and, we might as well continue learning and cataloging them; we’re going to get depressingly familiar with all of his schtick over the next four years): how Streep “doesn’t know” him.
This happened often during the campaign: somebody would criticize Trump (the Mexican ex-President; another candidate; a celebrity) and Trump would get all pouty and tweet that the person “doesn’t know” him; has never met him. He seems hurt and churlish, every time.
It’s, of course, unbelievably childish and stupid because he seems to be unaware that people have public personae through which they can be critiqued (especially in politics) — and, of course, he critiques everybody.
Slate had a thing two weeks ago about how Trump says “nobody really knows” so often. Climate change; Russian hacking; “nobody really knows.” It works along the same lines as “they don’t know me” — only he is allowed to draw conclusions; to assign blame; to render criticism. The rest of us are just speculating based on nothing; based on our own cluelessness (the cluelessness of not being Trump).
Our soon-to-be Solipsist-in-Chief.
I’m old enough to remember when:
That was consistent with Brando’s long held political positions and activism on behalf of AAs.
And:
Again, Redgrave was speaking of an issue that she had previously been active in.
And:
The Hollywood community isn’t particularly fond of anti-war, pro-income/wealth equality folks. Moore did personalize his attack to the person of GWB, but in a few words, how else was one supposed to shine a light on a three day old “war of choice?”
Hollywood had Streep’s back on this. OTOH, who turned Trump into a celebrity that could enter the presidential race with near 100% name ID? Hollywood does seem to have the ability to confer a level of “cool” on presidential candidates, but maybe that’s an illusion because it only succeeds intermittently and nobody knows if other than the campaign cash it brings in, it has any impact on elections. Nixon never made it to “cool” by associating with Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr, and Elvis.
I am part of several local, informal groups as well as a “secret” Facebook group, dedicated to sticking with the issues. Nearly every day there’s an action item that involves calling AND emailing our elected officials. Meetings have been called in my rural area to organize our efforts better to maximize our impact.
I have researched and found confirmation that an outstanding person hopes to take charge of our state Democratic Party. I hope to drum up support locally.
People are looking for both local and national non-profits to increase their support for. Give more to the ACLU or Southern Poverty Law Center. Donate to effective regional and national environmental organizations. Volunteer in small, local efforts that help refugees or immigrants.
But above all, keep up the pressure on elected officials.
good to hear
Update…Continuing on yesterday’s results, it appears that slates organized by Bernie supporters continue their sweep across the state today of California Democratic Party Assembly District Delegate elections. By my estimate they are on track to have won nearly 600 of the 1,100 seats up for grabs with an additional 40-50 of the 80 total executive board seats. This is a major development.
As Trump takes office, the largest state apparatus of the opposition/minority party will now be largely governed by those who have advocated for a boldly progressive and populist foil to the Republicans. In 12 days, our President will be Donald Trump and our Senate and House led by Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan respectively.
Or maybe HRC finished so strongly in CA because voters that showed up for down-ticket Sanders affiliated candidates that had some chance to win decided the “lesser evil” was the better choice in the presidential race. That’s the tactic that I suggested the DP should use to marginally improve her total vote count.
Wonder how many pockets in MI, PA, and WI the DP could have improved upon by signaling no opposition to BernieCrats? The 2016 numbers for the presidential race in NY-CD 19 haven’t been reported, but Obama carried it by over six points in 2012 and Teachout lost by nine point in her House race. (To be fair, the NY statewide Democratic office holders did endorse Teachout in the general election. On funding the major difference was twice as much spent by superpacs in opposition to Teachout than was spent in opposition to Faso, but plenty was also spent in favor of the two candidates.)
The more that celebrity/entertainers like Streep, Colbert, the SNL crew, etc. are willing to deploy the privilege they hold and the attention they get to undercut Trump’s legitimacy and provide political cover for further attacks against him, the better. The more that criticizing Trump, mocking Trump, ridiculing Trump is normalized, the better. Good on them for making a fuss.
Mass public anti-Trump demonstrations start this weekend. They will die down after a while but meanwhile some thoughtful people have come out with a “Practical Guide of Best Practices for Resisting the Trump Agenda” based on close observation of the Tea Party. They can’t keep ’em on the shelf. And there’s more fuss where that came from.
If the Senate Democrats want to lend a hand in building up the resistance, well, that would be great. But a lot of people over the years have given up on paying much attention to the Senate Democrats; this isn’t the Watergate Hearings and it’s not 1974 any more. If they want to earn back some of the respect that’s gone missing in recent years they could
The Senate Democrats will get about as much respect as they deserve, and as they earn. If there ever was a day when people would fall in line behind their leadership, though, it’s long past.
Speaking of that … did anyone see Sherlock on PBS last night? Talk about a villain! Toby Jones as a thinly-disguised Trump!! My husband and I were bemused to say the least LOL
Not at all sure about that. He has good instincts for easy stuff that he can attack well enough that he wins the spat more often than he loses it. Other than being “easy stuff,” don’t know that any of it holds any special interest for him beyond another opportunity to be a bully.
wrt to fights that are interesting to people, a huge portion of his support is from people that love all fights. WWE and all the other crap on TV that is nothing more than fights for entertainment. They don’t even mind if these fights are fake, but in the moment, they always respond as if they’re real and either important or fun.
What Trump does seem to have an instinct for is a sense of when to “hold em or fold em.” He has held so many long after others were sure that it was a loser only to end up the victor that it goes unnoticed when he folds em. And he does that a lot. Sometime early in the spat and sometimes late and usually with some weasel words as he walks away from it.
Did anyone here not enjoy seeing a Bush taken down? Or Carly Fiorina? Cruz? And while not extensive, wasn’t it about time that someone knock that warmongering, fake war hero McCain down a few pegs? I’d prefer this to take place in a more dignified and truthful manner and based on actual records and policy proposals, but that a) happens rarely and b) when it does is more like being slapped with a wet noodle with a recovery time of a few seconds. With 53% in the 2016 general election, this was McCain’s worst showing in his six Senate runs. A Senate career that should have ended in his first term with Lincoln Savings.
Donald Trump didn’t nominate Meryl Streep as his Director of Central Intelligence or his Secretary of Treasury. He nominated a full-on wingnut and a Goldman Sachs veteran foreclosure specialist for those jobs.
The foreclosure specialist should be in jail. If we are that concerned about laws, we should be pissed that criminals like that aren’t being prosecuted.
May be unfortunate for Kamala Harris, who is getting some side-eye for ignoring him.
Wake me up when BLM starts convincing young black athletes to stop playing for racist universities in racist states.