valencing:

a few thoughts about trump’s failure to mention the jewish people in his statement on holocaust remembrance day:

  • antisemitic hate crimes have gone up from their already high rate since his election, including 48 bomb threats to jewish community centers all over the country in the past month, so this is a particularly urgent time to recognize the ongoing threat of antisemitism. trump declined to do so.
  • compare trump’s words to the empathy and specific details on present-day antisemitism offered by barack obama last year.
  • a ton of trump supporters hate jews. erasing jews from the statement sends the message that trump would rather appease his antisemitic base than reassure jews that he gives a shit about their safety. this is in line with his use of the well-known nazi appeasement slogan “america first” in his campaign and inauguration speech.
  • it obviously would have been hypocritical of trump to pretend any concern for  jews anyway since antisemitic tropes were a hallmark of his campaign––nor could he unhypocritically mention any other groups targeted by the nazis; in addition to jews, nazis also slaughtered romani ppl, lgbt ppl, disabled ppl, and the left, and trump’s hatred and contempt for ethnic minorities, lgbt ppl, disabled ppl, and the left is well-known.
  • this is the same week trump is banning muslim refugees fleeing violence and war, threatening mass deportations, and ordering “the wall.” when nazis came to power in germany many jews tried to leave germany for america but jewish immigration was sharply restricted and most were not allowed in. for trump to acknowledge the suffering of the jewish people in his statement would have sharpened the horrible irony of pretending to promote the idea of “never again” while signing executive orders born of ethnic, racial, and religious animus.
  • so from trump’s pov it’s better to pretend that the holocaust was some vague bad thing that happened long ago rather than a specific and fairly recent atrocity made possible by the interaction of mass hatred and sadism with passivity and callousness, forces which made possible the presidency of donald trump himself

beggars-opera:

What Obama opposers were worried about: their excess money being taken away and given to someone who needs it more, being too nice and accidentally letting bad people into the country, conspiracy theories about the president that confirmed their racist and islamophobic views

What Trump opposers are worried about: having essential human rights taken away, having freedom of speech taken away, having access to lifesaving medical care denied, vulnerable refugees from other countries being denied sanctuary, widespread and government-sanctioned racism, sexism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and homophobia, women’s reproductive rights being taken away, having journalistic integrity and the reporting of facts refuted by the government to gaslight the populace, presidential power rising to the point of dictatorship, government backing of war atrocities by Vladimir Putin, the rise of white nationalist and nazi groups, mass government censorship, being deported, being killed by police, having the president insult other world leaders and cause a nuclear war…

beggars-opera:

What is almost laughable about all of this is how predictable this recent bout of censorship is. It’s the natural progression of everything Trump usually does writ large. What happened in the past when someone called him out on an injustice? He went on twitter, called them stupid and ugly, took it as a victory if they didn’t deign to reply to his bullshit and blocked them if they did. Win-win situation. 

Now he suddenly has to be accountable when people speak out about him, and he just doesn’t know how to deal with that. Calling them stupid and ugly doesn’t make them go away anymore, because those words have consequences now, and he can’t just block them, because this is bigger than twitter now. Suddenly he can’t win anymore, and he can’t handle a reality where he isn’t a winner. It’s impossible for him to comprehend because he’s been so good at blocking his ears to dissenters that he honestly thinks he is right 100% of the time. So he tries to shut down the means of protest in general as much as he can, shutting off dissenting government employees from interacting with the public and using his officials to discredit unflattering reports about him. It’s the only response he knows. Is it seedy, terrible, fascist? Yes. Is it anything he hasn’t done before? Emphatically, no.

mckinonn:

kid-mera:

breelandwalker:

mysticmoonhigh:

0fthem0untains:

weavemama:

America is about to be that part in the lion king where where pride rock became all shitty bc Scar became king

have yet to see a better analogy

Are you implying Hilary Clinton’s daughter will assassinate Donald Trump because I’m okay with this

Actually, if we follow the narrative, I think it would be the Obama daughters. Which would be even MORE awesome.

Malia’s gonna fight Trump on the roof of the Whitehouse while it’s on fire.

while joe biden dresses in drag and does the hula as a diversion

Buckle up kids, it’s going to be a bumpy dictatorship

nodaybuttodaytodefygravity:

nodaybuttodaytodefygravity:

Trump has been president for literally 4 days and he’s already settling us into our new authoritarian regime. A few updates in case anyone hadn’t been keeping up:

I’m sure there’s more but holy fuck this is getting terrifying.

I cannot believe I forgot the biggest one/the reason I made this post. 

He has put gag orders on multiple government agencies like the EPA, the Department of Agriculture, the National Parks Service, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

i can’t freakin believe how many times sean spicer brought up king baby’s hurt feelings at the press briefing like what is this freudian psychodrama omg

valencing:

“But I will tell you that it’s not – it’s not just about a crowd size. It’s about this constant – you know, he’s not going to run. Then if
he runs, he’s going to drop out. Then if he runs, he can’t win, there’s
no way he can win Pennsylvania, there’s no way he can win Michigan. Then, if won, it’s oh, well he – there is this constant theme to
undercut the enormous support that he has. And I think that it’s just
unbelievably frustrating when you’re continually told it’s not big
enough, it’s not good enough
, you can’t win.”

ARE…ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT CROWD SIZE

“Hold on – because I – I think it’s important. He’s gone out there and
defied the odds over and over and over again. And he keeps getting told
what he can’t do by this narrative that’s out there. And he exceeds it
every single time. And I think there’s an overall frustration when you
– when you turn on the television over and over again and get told that
there’s this narrative that you didn’t win
. You weren’t going to run.
You can’t pick up this state.”

THIS IS LIKE WHEN SOME MASS MURDERER IN A MOVIE IS GIVEN A BACKSTORY LIKE “WELL MY DAD TOLD ME I WOULD NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING” AND THEN WE’RE SUPPOSED TO FEEL BAD FOR HIM LIKE??????

“We want to have a healthy dialogue, not just with you but the
American people because he’s fighting for jobs, he’s fighting to make
this country safer. But when you’re constantly getting told that
can’t be true, we doubt that you can do this, this won’t happen, and
that’s the narrative when you turn on television every single day, it’s a
little frustrating
.”

HE LITERALLY….CAN’T SHUT UP ABOUT THIS? THE WHOLE TRUMP CONCEPT IS SUPPOSED TO BE THAT CARNAGE AMERICA IS URGENTLY DYING AND HE ALONE CAN FIX IT BUT UWU FIRST TRY TO UNDERSTAND HIS PAIN???

“And I think that for those people around him, his senior team
especially, but so many of the other folks that are either here in the
administration, that gave up their time during the transition, they left
a job to work for three or four weeks because they are so committed to
having his nominees get through, it’s a little demoralizing
to turn on
the TV day after day and hear, can’t do this, this guy’s not going to
get confirmed, not way they’re going to go through.”

OH HIS STAFF ARE HURTING TOO THAT’S SO SAD THEY WERE FORCED TO WORK FOR A FASCIST IT’S LITERALLY DAY THREE BUCKLE UP ASSHOLES

And I think that it’s important to understand, that whether it’s the
president himself, the vice president, the senior team, the volunteers
or the people who are out there just in America that voted for him or
walked the streets or put up a sign, that to constantly be told no, no,
no and watch him go yes, yes, yes every time and to come up to the next
hurdle and see someone put a block up gets a little frustrating.

HOW IS HE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS? LITERALLY HOW? IS THIS REAL LIFE???

“And then to hear, “Well, look at this shot,” and it’s not – “It wasn’t
that big.” It’s a little demoralizing
because when you’re sitting there
and you’re looking out and you’re in awe of just how awesome that view
is and how many people are there and you go back and you turn on the
television and you see shots of comparing this and that.”

CAN U IMAGINE FOR ONE MINUTE IF HILLARY WAS PRESIDENT AND DECIDED TO SPEND HER FIRST DAYS AS PRESIDENT CRYING ABOUT HOW PPL DIDN’T LIKE HER ENOUGH AND SENDING HER PRESS SECRETARY OUT TO DELIVER TEN-PART ARIAS ABOUT HOW NO ONE IS NICE TO HER?? CAN U IMAGINE THE CONTEMPT, THE DERISION, THE DEGRADING COMMENTS ABOUT FEMININE WEAKNESS?

“Because it’s not – because that’s what I’m saying, you’re minimizing
the point here, Jim. It’s not about one Tweet. It’s not about one
picture. It’s about a constant theme. It’s about sitting here every time
and being told no. ‘Well, we don’t think he can do that, he’ll never
accomplish that, he can’t win that, it won’t be the biggest, it’s not
gonna be that good. The crowds aren’t that big, he’s not that
successful.’"

BY THE WAY, REMEMBER WHEN THE PROBLEM WITH AMERICA WAS THAT WE’VE GONE SOFT AND WE DON’T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND WE WANT PARTICIPATION TROPHIES AND WE CAN’T HANDLE STRAIGHT TALK? LOL

“The narrative – and the default narrative is always
negative and it’s demoralizing. And I think that when you sit here and
you realize the sacrifice the guy made, leaving a very, very successful
business because he really cares about this country
and he wants –
despite your partisan differences, he cares about making this country
better for everybody. He wants to make it safer for everybody. And so
when you wake up everyday and that’s what you’re seeing over and over
again
and you’re not seeing stories about the Cabinet folks that he’s
appointing or the success that he’s having trying to keep American jobs
here. Yes, it is a little disappointing.”

DONALD TRUMP WAKES UP EVERY DAY AND FEELS SAD THAT WE DON’T APPRECIATE HIS INCREDIBLE SACRIFICE THAT WE DIDN’T ASK FOR, THANK YOU FOR THIS POIGNANT WORD PICTURE SEAN SPICER

“There are things – there’s a lot of things that he’s done
already, a lot of amazing people that he’s appointed, a lot of success
that he’s having. And it would be once – nice once in a while
for someone just to say – report it straight up, he appointed this
person, here’s their background. Not why they’re not gonna get
nominated, not why it’s not gonna happen
.”

SEAN SPICER @ACTUAL PROFESSIONALS: PLEASE STOP HURTING HIS FEELINGS BY DOING YOUR JOB

HERE IS THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRESS BRIEFING/THERAPY SESSION/SEAN SPICER’S DREAM JOURNAL