2017-02-02

My class for tonight got postponed again and this is what I did all effing night. And yet I can't even start in on Mexico or Black History Month today.

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/



You’re Fired: Four Ways Donald Trump’s Presidency Might Not Last Four Years

Budweiser to ruin red state Super Bowl parties with pro-immigration ad

The March for Science has a date: April 22. Yes, but has anyone figured out what hat we're making yet? Um, seriously asking.

Trump’s immigration order was a 9/11-style crisis reaction — without a 9/11

Data Refuge Day.

Denying a quorum.

Why the Trump administration keeps screwing up.

National parks cannot be apolitical.

Politicians have different personalities than the rest of us.

Yes, politics can make us stupid. But there’s an important exception to that rule.

Connie Willis's recommended reading list: "Do some research on Oliver Cromwell and his takeover of England in 1653. He picked fights, started wars, smashed everything connected to previous rulers (the list of destroyed stained glass windows, statues, treasures, books, and people is absolutely sickening), and nearly destroyed England in the process. But not quite. And when the monarchy was returned to power, the people dug up his body, hung it in chains, cut off his head, and put it on a spike. So how did he go from being a successful leader of a movement, beloved by the people, to someone they hated so much they wanted to kill him even though he was already dead? I think the answers to that might be helpful. And I think it might also be helpful to realize that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened."

10 Tips for How to Fully Feel What Hurts without Going Insane

5 Absolute Wrong Ways To Respond To Remorseful Trump Voters. "I used to be a steadfast conservative. I'm talking the "abortion is wrong and gay people are a plague" type. I'm not that way anymore, but I didn't get there on my own. I talked to people who didn't blow me off as a raging lunatic. They didn't scream at me or throw handfuls of shit. They explained why they thought I was wrong, and guess what? Over time, I found that I actually agreed with them."

Here Are The Brave Soldiers Trump Just Banned From America

Law students helping out.

This picture sums up exactly how to pick nominees.

The project is collecting 100 anti-Trump anthems for his first 100 days in office.

The presidency is supposed to age the president, not the public.

Democratic Women Are Increasing Their Political Engagement in Huge Numbers

Protesters tear down barricades, set fires during protests against speech by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley. Naturally, the show got canceled.

What it's like to write a sermon this week.

Use This Generator to Make Trump Sign Any Executive Order You Want

Bandcamp is donating to the ACLU on February 3.

Let’s Transmute This Shock Event into a Love Revolution

Special all-Washington-Post section, so be forewarned on your clicks:

Suspending the rules. Figures.

Good luck eating in restaurants with this immigrant ban. We're gonna need sanctuary restaurants now.

In movies, punching is the way to deal with Nazis. Reality is more complicated. "But who can blame the people grappling with this question? Pop culture has coaxed us into believing that, when faced with horrible villains, the noble response is physical aggression." (On a non-Washington-Post-related note, there’s a Nazi-punching film festival going down in Brooklyn! And 10 Great Nazi-Punching Movies.)

The Obama plain white T-shirt art thing in Hawaii. "Even presidents feel that way. In a 2016 New York Times profile of Barack Obama, former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel revealed an inside joke that he shared with the president in moments when they faced a crushing number of options: They would run away to Hawaii and open a T-shirt shack that sold shirts of only one color (white) and one size (medium).
“During difficult White House meetings when no good decision seemed possible,” read the article,” Mr. Emanuel would sometimes turn to Mr. Obama and say, ‘White.’ Mr. Obama would in turn say, ‘Medium.’”
Brooklyn-based artist Emily Spivack read that last summer and couldn’t get it out of her mind. “I was so moved by the idea,” she says. She thought it was funny, escapist and very human: Although very few people understand the demands of the presidency, anyone could relate on some level to “decision-making fatigue.”
Thus was born the pop-up shop “Medium White Tee.”
Part art installation, part Obama tribute, part retail therapy, the shop opened last month in Hawaii as a four-week exhibit presented by the Honolulu Museum of Art. It’s in an indoor-outdoor mall where anyone passing by can browse, relax and find a temporary refuge from the outside world.
Spivack, 38, created a limited edition of 1,000 shirts and a mini-tropical oasis to display them in: blue walls, palm trees, beach chairs and one circular rack of white cotton shirts, all size M. All are completely plain, with a simple logo at the neck. Each shirt is tagged with an edition number. The price: $44, an homage to Obama, the 44th president, with proceeds going to two Hawaiian charities. Half of the shirts are reserved for the stand; the other half are available online."

The resistance to Trump is big, diverse and ferocious

Democratic women step up activism.

The GOP senators who spoke up against Trump’s ban are all talk

To resist or not, the federal employee’s dilemma

Federal employees who are resisting.

It takes more than social media to make a social movement

San Francisco sues Trump.

Refugees are already vetted.

Gene Weingarten chat: "I have heard from a couple of journalists who aren't happy with my contention (in the poll, and now here) that journalists are at war with the Trump administration.  I understand their discomfort but double down on my assertion. Some good journalists are trying their damnedest to frame the situation more benignly, and good for them.  Fred Hiatt does a fine job here.   He's right in theory.  Aspirationally, it is noble. But, uh, it's a bit disingenuous. There is a historically unqualified, even maligned, presence in the White House.  We have a job to do, which is to remind people of this so they are better equipped to judge, and to resist, if need be. Who was the physically ugliest president in American history?  If you asked experts on beauty, there would probably be a consensus pick:  Abe Lincoln.   A dispassionate look at Abe reveals a grotesque looking man: ungainly in stature and limb, with exaggerated features (check out his huge schnoz and horizontal diameter of his lips) , a look he did much to further ruin with an Amish-style mustacheless beard.  And yet.  And yet, over decades Lincoln looks became iconic to Americans -- dare we say, handsome?   It was an amazing triumph of substance over form.  It's the way a person in love sees his/her lover -- scrubbed of imperfections. The opposite is happening with Trump.  Forrest Trump, the man for no seasons.  The Post has been getting calls from readers imploring us to stop running his photo!   They are okay with our covering him -- it is our job, after all -- but they  just don't want to have to look at him. Isn't that interesting?  It troubles me to say this, but objectively speaking, Donald Trump is a handsome man, for a fellow of 70. He looks every bit as sternly presidential as, say, William McKinley.  And yet, I too find myself put off by his image. See what I mean?   It's the opposite of the Lincoln effect!  Again, substance triumphs, somehow." (Once again, I suggest this.)

Trump wants you to fear refugees and migrants. Here are eight books that push back.

10 Investigative Reporting Outlets to Follow

"The act of melting down on the internet informs the world we live in. It has gone from a niche pastime of crackpots to the central animating force of our politics. It has moved some to run for office. It has created jobs. It has expanded our culture. For the next four years, we will have a president who is insanely pissed online most of the time. As scholars of online rage, we have closely monitored these developments with awe. In 2015, we chronicled the nine canonical examples of being mad online. It has become clear to us that those examples of being mad are insufficient to describe the new genuses that have evolved in the wild."

While I'm at it, the whole Patton Oswalt thing today, or why we don't insult a guy's dead wife:

Patton's response: "What I learned was that when I Tweet or Facebook negative things about Trump -- comedic insults, mocking responses, etc.? Trump supporters will push back mildly, in that dismissive tone of, "Yeah, whatever. We won. Get over it." It's sour, but not vicious or threatening. It's a disagreement. Which is fine.
But when I Tweet something POSITIVE, or HOPEFUL, in support of a group that's been made to fear or doubt because of Trump and his ghoul brigade's actions? A helpful link for peaceful action? Praising someone who speaks up eloquently against the smirking racism of Trump's parking lot carnival of an administration?
THAT'S when the responses get violent, and threatening, and ominous. As if the language itself -- the grammar of thoughtfulness -- lands in their guts like glass shards. Empathy and understanding literally feel like an attack to them."

How To Lose Your Entire Career In Two Minutes On Twitter Seriously, folks, SHIT LIKE THIS IS WHY TWITTER IS BAD MMKAY?

Do you care about Melania?

Shocking, she may never move to DC! Her husband won't miss her anyway!

Only hired one staff member (Washington Post).

Melania's fictional diary. (New Yorker)

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