I like how all of the articles about this acknowledge that Bill announced that they'd be shutting down the CGI back in August and yet STILL paint it as a sudden shock that must only be due to post-election shadiness.
I'm guessing the Clinton's don't give refunds for bribes either, so there are some pissed off foreign countries about now.
Well, good for them to finally realize that all oopsies in revealing donors and pay to play shit was pissing people off. Too bad they didn't realize it before Hillary was secretary of state. That probably would have helped.
Watching this inauguration I couldn't help think back to about a week ago when Meryl Street gave that Golden Globes speech. The day after her speech, Huffingpost, a major news publication, ran it as the headline. A lot of people were saying that her speech showed why Trump won. I realized that those people were right, but for the wrong reason. Trump won for many reasons, but one of them is based on how society (and particularly the media) has elevated celebrities to almost god-like status. How else to explain an actress' speech gaining precedent over war in the middle east, elections in Europe and other far more pressing concerns. Trump is a celebrity, and that gave him this odd importance to millions of people and the media. It was as if, just by virtue of being famous, he merited serious consideration for the nation's highest office. He had no public service experience before hand, and it didn't matter. But it isn't just him. Al Franken won a Senate seat with no public experience, just good name recognition. While he is a smart man and seems to be doing well as a US Senator, the voters intrinsically felt him qualified to run for such a high office purely based on his celebrity. Last night at a rally of over 20,000 in NYC, civil rights leaders and politicians gave speeches calling on an answer to Trump. But in addition, dozens of celebrities were invited to speak. What authority or expertise do they have in the matter to be worthy of those 20,000 protesters' ears? No more authority than Jan in accounting or Bill who owns a small printing company. Yet, we as society feel comfortable elevating them to this role of great influence. This was supposedly an election about striking back against the elite. Yet we elected a man that is the embodiment of the elite on the right, and we on the left rally behind celebrities, the embodiment of the elite on the left. There are already calls for Mark Zuckerberg to run for President, because inventing (or stealing) a social media platform, making billions, and being famous is all that is required of our leaders now. I do not blame celebrities themselves for this. They are citizens who have every right to make their voice heard. If they want to tweet, or make a speech when asked, good on them. Sure, there is a responsibility with such a large platform to be honest, but they are allowed their voice. But I blame the media and ourselves but holding them above the non-famous and non-rich. This is our fault. This is how we get someone profoundly unqualified for the job. Every election, we decry the fact that no candidate seems to be representing the people, only their fellow elites and themselves. But it is us who elevates these elites who claim to speak for us and then enact policies that fail to serve us. Oh well. I should go try to organize some people to phone bank our congressmembers. Instead I'm going to read an article about the "epic" tweet Alec Baldwin set that "totally destroyed" Trump.
Protests or Russian hackers or shocking results aside, this image is what I appreciate the most. Classy Michelle, and immigrant Melania, standing next to a peaceful transition of power, despite those two men having very different backgrounds and very different ideas about how to govern. There are challenges, big issues and lots of hurt feelings, sure, but the USA is a great county.
And the White House's pages have started to come down and change. The page on Energy has some rather interesting new verbiage... fairly well recapped by this Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/c...ferences_to_climate_change_have_been/dcojdmt/ Basically it looks like they're bringing back coal, scrapping EPA and environmental protections that are "getting in the way", and going full bore on fracking. All in the name of helping the US worker get jobs and increase their wages. Seems like a pretty big fuck you to the environment and clean energy initiatives.
This is going to be the one that really fucks us. If there's one thing that China and Europe and Canada and Japan and South Korea and the Global South agree on it's climate change, and with China going full bore after renewables, we're not only going to see an economic shift away from the US and toward China in this domain, we're also going to see an increasing desire to hurt US productivity to the degree that it is built on the burning of fossil fuels that damage the entire globe. The US has the high technology, the manufacturing base, and the economic clout to be a dominant force in alternative energy, but we're going to throw that away to dupe a few key voters and line a the pockets of a few shareholders and execs.
Can someone explain what protesters hope to accomplish by protesting the inauguration, an event dictated by the Constitution? Who do they think is watching and taking note? What do they think is going to change by their presence? I'm not trolling; I really don't understand their thought process.
Dude, we had women here in London, Ontario, Canada, make the trip to go protest. It makes no fucking sense... and makes me wish some people had less free time on their hands.
I've never been much for public gatherings so I'm not really one to march in the streets, but they do serve multiple purposes It's somewhat cathartic. Yes this officially doesn't accomplish anything, but there is value in having a population psychologically ready to get to work rather than just wallowing in dread It serves as a networking event. People are meeting others who they may work with in the future, making connections that will help organizations down the road. It gets attention. 50% of the country didn't vote, and getting them into the voting booth is likely easier than pulling voters from across the aisle. Large protests give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion, which is influential to people who don't tune in all that much. It puts pressure on representatives. It shows how engaged and willing to act a voting population is, and essentially puts a politician "on notice." All of this is of course mostly useless if people don't follow up through other means after such a protest, but the protest itself is not without merit if it lays groundwork for further action.
It's even worse: they're protesting, right here in town in Victoria Park. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SCARED OR UPSET ABOUT? I'm pissed that they seem bent on polluting at a catostrophic scale again, since they have anti-scientist mongoloids in charge like back in 2000 and this will effect us all. America seems to be the only first world nation that goes out of its way to ignore the fact that climate change has more potential to kill us all than every other threat on this planet put together. ...but we don't live in the States, so idiots here have no excuse to be outraged. We have a Care Bear in charge of our country who constantly kisses third wave feminist ass and they seem to forget this. I swear to the Gods...if Meagan Walker didn't have something to be offended about in this town, her vagina would prolapse and swollow the rest of her whole like a fucking Langolier.
It is funny. But what I meant is that these local protesters are not upset at all about environment. They think Pussy-Grabbing has become an airbourne strain.
There's been a shooting at a Milo speech in Washington state. Protestors attacked crowd and police. Live news feed: http://komonews.com/news/local/faceoff-at-university-of-washington-over-alt-right-speaker
So his speech at the CIA was... something. In the span of less than five minutes he said he was at war with the media, complained (and lied) about his inauguration, advocated for committing war crimes, and coyly hinted that we're going back into Iraq. At this point I'm just seeing how long it takes Trump supporters to realize how badly they fucked up.
Not until the lies impact something they specifically care about... like their jobs, or some other bullshit promise he made that they bought as the core reason for voting for him.
I just hope all these people remember how they are feeling vote big time in the 2018 midterms and then again in 2020. Because 50% of the people will vote for Trump again.(if he makes it a full term) And it doesn't matter how many more people from California and New York vote because the votes need to come from blue collar people in states they lost 2 months ago.
I'm watching people beat teenagers in 20-against-1 circle bootings. That's a fucking riot, not protesting. They are throwing bricks and paint balloons. Sometimes I just wish the cops would go Kent State on their asses.
Maybe this has been answered, but...what exactly are all these women protesting, and what is the goal of the march? Is it just a general "we hate Trump" thing, or do they want something specifically regarding gender? I googled it and the first article I found said in answer to the question: “to affirm our shared humanity and pronounce our bold message of resistance and self-determination.” If ever there was a $10 sentence that said nothing, that one is it.