High School Bully Intimidated By The Theater Kids

Hamilton won a fight against the Vice President - historically, this has not been the case.

Something to remember:

First, Trump's shit-flinging is about covering up the Big Bamboozle.  This is a heist-in-progress.  So let the comics make fun of it (I can sure use a good laugh on a frequent basis), but we need to remind each other to look for the story behind the story, which is something a guy like Meyers does pretty well - but wouldn't it be nice if The Press Poodles could do a bit more of that for us?

Second - Pence may play Mr Gracious and mumble a few niceties like "that's what democracy sounds like", but never forget that a smiling hyena will still eat your children.

Don't trust this bunch any farther than you could spit one of 'em.

Who's Doin' What

(See if you can spot the ones being applied right now - by the same people who've screamed for 30 years about how rotten all of this is)

The following is a list of Power Tactics that Saul Alinsky put together in his 1971 book, Rules For Radicals - A Pragmatic Guide For Realistic Radicals.

1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

2. Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

3. Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.

7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment, like going to church on Sunday mornings.

8. Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10. The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.

11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.

12. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. You cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying "You're right — we don't know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us."

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

Today's Tweet

Mixing those interests, @realDonaldTrump, with a presidency is an impeachable offense, you smug little fascist #Resist pic.twitter.com/lKGOJmouqF

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) November 22, 2016

Richard Spencer

Via The Atlantic:

Spencer has popularized the term “alt-right” to describe the movement he leads. Spencer has said his dream is “a new society, an ethno-state that would be a gathering point for all Europeans,” and has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing.”

But Not Here

We get lazy sometimes.  We start to think "we shouldn't need that kind of reminder - not here in America".

Obviously, we do need it. And we need it precisely because this is America.

Today's driftglass

driftglass on what to do when trying to hold Trump accountable.

In Bridge on the River Kwai, Colonel Saito never understood Colonel Nicholson...
You are stubborn,  but have no pride.
You endure, but you have no courage.
,,,but Nicholson understood Saito perfectly. 
Saito was a not-very-bright middle-manager -- a Reince Preibus -- whose only tools are the blunt instruments of the inept martinet.  And that would have been sufficient if all he had to do was keep a bunch of prisoners locked up and in line, but was also charged by his superiors with completing critical infrastructure project which neither he nor the men under his command were competent to perform. 

Saito can threaten and torture all he likes...
...but since he refuses to abide by the rule of the civilized world...
...he absolves those who are civilized of any obligation to respect his authority:

And we on the Left understand Trump and the Right just as perfectly.

You are defeated, but you have no shame.

Saito [speaking of the Geneva Convention]:  You speak to me of code?  What code?  The coward's code!  What do you know of the soldier's code, of Bushido?  Nothing!  You are unworthy of command!

Nicholson:  Since you refuse to abide by the laws of the civilized world...we must consider ourselves absolved from our duty to obey you.

 

Today's Tweet

If Melania and Barron Trump don't have to live with Donald Trump, why do we?

— Jeremy Newberger (@jeremynewberger) November 20, 2016

Rachel On Mike Flynn

"Stick a pin in it" should be the new motto of anybody trying to push back against this.

The shit flinger depends on flinging so much shit that you just can't deal with all of it.

Eventually, all you can do is shake your head when the surrogates jump on you and demand that you cite specifics, but there will have been so much that you'll stumble and they'll take that "hesitation" to mean you're wrong (The Fallacy Fallacy).  And since "you're wrong", the False Dichotomy they've embraced for so many years automatically kicks in and that means they're right.

Big Beautiful Boobs And Buildings

SNL last nite:

Today's Skeptical Poe

Today's Tweet

Someone found the perfect visual metaphor for the alt-right running the federal government #transition2017 pic.twitter.com/qptLP1te8W

— William Resh (@billresh) November 18, 2016

What We're Up Against

Spotted in a NC parking lot (via Reddit)

(click to embiggen)

Revenge Of The Nerds

I am dearly lovin' me some Nerdsville right now.

Crowne Plaza, Atlanta

Today's Tweet

What he said. pic.twitter.com/l7BZjVpqw0

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) November 17, 2016

Today's Pix

My Fantasy Is As Worthless As Yours

A rant:

I’ve got one major thing to say to you. HILLARY CLINTON DID NOT FAIL US, WE FAILED HILLARY CLINTON. Now I know, I know, she won the popular vote by almost two million votes, and I know that a lot of you were a part of that so yay go ahead and pat yourselves on the back. You done? Okay. You say she was flawed? Y’all motherfuckers didn’t DESERVE the candidate you got, and every day I watched as "progressives" posted on Facebook about how much they hated corrupt Clinton, talked about how imperfect she was as a candidate, posted articles that were flat out lies, or wrote things like #ImWithHerIGuess. Your enthusiasm for the former First Lady, Senator of New York, Secretary of State and first ever possible female President was shameful when you compare it to the enthusiasm the other side had for their “flawed” (racist homophobic tax evading possible rapist who has to make his undocumented Mexican maids wash the orange out of his bedsheets every fucking morning) candidate. If you would have just swallowed your pride and given Hillary half of the love you gave Obama, then we might not have woken up on November 9th worrying about families being torn apart, marriage licenses being taken way, guns getting into the wrong hands and women having to stay pregnant after getting raped. Does that sound too harsh? Too bad! This reality show is now our reality and we need to accept it and own our shit. We stepped in it and now its going to take at least four years to clean it off.

And to you people out there saying “Don’t blame me, I voted for Bernie”- suck a dick. Oh noooo- I’m so sorry you didn’t “like” Hillary. That’s so saaaad! I guess that’s worth this result. Your “I told you so” is so worth the millions of people who will suffer because of selfishness and pride. We all act like our nominee has to be the perfect representation of us regardless of how many years they’ve spent working tirelessly for the people. I didn’t give a shit about John Kerry, but I voted for the rest of my country. Every candidate has an email/Swift boat Veteran/Born in Kenya/Benghazi/Reverend Wright/Gennifer Flowers bullshit scandal that gets played over and over again, and for some reason we thought Hillary’s private email server (WTF is even a server?) was more damaging than Trump ADMITTING TO SEXUAL ASSAULT AND CALLING MEXICANS RAPISTS. Who’s talking about those damn emails now? NO ONE. Think about how the world must perceive us.

--snip--

And to those of you that say Bernie would have won? Suck two dicks. We look back and say that the Democrats should have focused their campaign on the white middle class and criticize Hillary for focusing on racial and gender equality. FUCK YOU!!! I am sick and tired of people making the white middle class the biggest victims in this election. Oh the Caucacity of it all! The real victims are the Black and Latino kids out there living in a trailer park eating canned food for the 4th day in a week. That was me. I know how it feels. I’m sorry, Becky, for hurting your white feelings and for being upset by your privilege, but your pain and guilt are a small price to pay for the millions out there who are struggling in this country. And we are thankful to you for trying to help - that goes without saying. White people lost limbs and lives fighting against slavery, but they knew it was caused by them and probably didn’t complain when they received criticism. If they can accept that, I’m sure you can handle it when people point out inequality and racism amongst white people in general.

Make your case for whatever you think we need to do to Make The Dems Great Again - but let's try to be sure we're not building on a foundation of unicorn farts.

Sleight Of Hand

Trevor Noah and Trump's Muslim Registry

Trump flings shit, and while we're all either ducking it or normalizing it or cleaning it up, don't forget to watch what else is happening.

Distract-and-Divert is a very important element of Divide-and-Conquer.

While we're busy worrying about who's being appointed to Trump's Cabinet, let's not stop looking for what's going into Trump's pockets.

New Age Of Fear

Be sure to get a good daily dose of driftglass 

An Un-Joke

John of Patmos (writing Revelation): 

Lord, the End Times will be signaled by trumpets?

God: 

No - Trump/Pence

John: 

Oh, right - Trumpets

God: 

Fine - whatever - they'll know.

hat tip = Jay Smooth

Today's Tweet

Spot on description of the Trump admin by @RyanLizza.

Kakistocracy: a government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. pic.twitter.com/1JSCUdMQUJ

— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) November 16, 2016