Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Meanwhile the FLINT WATER CRISIS IS STILL A THING! #Hate it!
“It’s going to be a very, very anxious-ridden time. Two of the issues that I’m most concerned about are [global warming], which these guys are all denying, and the immigration issue. (…) We’re going to have to say, ‘You cannot do this over us. You’re going to have to go through us, around us, under us. We’re not going to give these people up without a fight.’ Every single one of the people they’re trying to deport is one of us, and we’re not going to give them up. We belong to a very, very exclusive club. It’s called the United States. And the dues are very, very high. And sometimes the leadership does not represent the core values of most of the members of that club. But we don’t withdraw. We try to change the thinking of those in power, and if that doesn’t work, then we change those in power. We’re still part of this. We cannot divest ourselves. This man is reflecting a part of our culture that the majority of us do not recognize and do not share. We don’t approve of tyrants and bullies, but we’re stuck with one now, and now our real character is going to show up. We can’t sit back, We can’t not get involved. We have to get more and more and more involved. And we have to allow ourselves to be taken to the best part of ourselves, and it’s gonna be costly. But that’s what it means to belong to this very exclusive club.”
—
Martin Sheen on Donald Trump: ‘God forgive us, but we just elected a tyrant’
(via donnajosh)
In her book Settle For More, the Fox anchor shares scary and empowering moments covering the 2016 campaign. But Kelly says she doesn't regret not going up against Roger Ailes earlier.
This interview is useful in several ways. It shows the playbook Trump uses re: controlling media voices.
-He pushes favors on them. If they accept one, he uses it as leverage later.
-If they criticize him he sics his dogs on them - threats, intimidation, harassment. In an ongoing way intended to exhaust someone and drive them into giving up.
-Even someone like Kelly, who is privileged in so many ways and conservative and connected to conservative men like Sean Hannity and Roger Ailes, was not able to get it to stop until Trump felt that she’d lost face and shown him “respect” - and then suddenly all the threats and intimidation and harassment stopped. Which indicates that he is in control of his bully mob, particularly through the overt and covert signals he and his pals send them over Twitter.
The man has run his business and his campaign like a freaking mob boss. He has been at this for decades. He has created a web of control and favors and leverage. He will try to run the country the same way, using the same tools.
If you notice a journalist doing journalism about Trump, realize that they are taking a serious risk and exposing themselves to intimidation.
If, on the other hand, you notice a journalist being strangely accommodating about him and/or downplaying the white supremacy of some of his picks (Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, David Brooks and I am sure many, many others) you have to ask yourself what he has on them. Whether, at some point, they took a favor from him. Or whether they simply do not want to expose themselves to intimidation and harassment.
Same thing with our elected representatives. He’s been trying to buy them off and/or intimidate them for decades as well. And people in entertainment.
“I listened as they said my President wasn’t born here.
I listened for eight years.
I listened as they called my him a Muslim.
I listened as they called him and his family a pack of monkeys.
Even the n-word.
I saw the pictures of him as Hitler.
I saw their signs and displays with nooses.
Still to this day.
I watched them turn their backs on every opportunity to open constructive dialogue.
I listened as they openly stated that they would oppose him at every turn.
I watched as they blocked every single path to progress that they could.
I watched them shut down the government and cripple the entire nation… twice.
I watched them as they refused to listen to anything he had to offer, nor his counterparts, nor the American people.
I watched as they did just that.
I listened.
I paid attention.
Now, I’m being called on to be ‘tolerant’.
To move forward.
To denounce the protesters, to denounce freedom of speech, to denounce our 1st Amendment.
To “Get over it!”
To accept this as the “new normal”.
I will not.
I will never accept Donald J. Trump, nor his brand of hate.
Tolerance is not tolerating intolerance.
This will never be accepted by me as the “new normal”.
It is unacceptable.
I will do my part to make sure this great American mistake becomes the embarrassing footnote in our history that it deserves to be.
I will do this every chance I get.
I will do my part to limit the damage that this man can do to my country.
I will watch his every move and point out every single mistake and misdeed loudy and proudly.
My voice will not be silenced.
I will let it be known every time this man backs away from a promise he made to his supporters.
The people who voted for him.
The ones who sold their souls and prayed for him to win.
Those who call themselves “Christians”.
The nationalists within our country who falsely claim to be patriots.
I will do this so that they never forget.
I will never allow them to forget.
And they will hear me.
They will see it in my eyes when I look at them.
They will hear it in my voice when I speak to them.
They will know that I know who they are.
They will know that I know what they are.
Do not call for my ‘tolerance’.
I’ve tolerated all I can.
Now it is their turn to tolerate ridicule; only rightfully so.
Be aware and make no mistake, every single thing that goes wrong in our country from this day forward is now Trump’s fault; just as much as they falsely claimed it was Obama’s.
It is unreasonable and hypocritical for them to expect from me what they were entirely unwilling to give.
They will get no respect.
They deserve no respect.
None.“
“You don’t get a pat on the back for ratcheting down from rabid after exploiting that very radicalism to your advantage. Unrepentant opportunism belies a staggering lack of character and caring that can’t simply be vanquished from memory. You did real harm to this country and many of its citizens, and I will never — never — forget that.” - Charles Blow, NYT @CharlesMBlow
He’s laying the groundwork for restricted access to the presidency.
He’s only going to let those who will write what he wants speak to his administration.
We’re only going to be reading and watching propaganda and expect real journalists to be starved out, fired, sued and smeared by the remaining press.
We already have laws on the books that make it illegal for journalists/cameras to go on farms to investigate how unsanitary they are, and their human rights and animal cruelty violations. How much easier will it be to concoct some “threat to national security” that necessitates restricted access to government?
Update: The New York Times said they didn’t even know the meeting with Trump was cancelled until they saw his tweet this morning. “We did not change the ground rules and made no attempt to.”
here’s the funny thing abt this though (and by funny i mean horrifying):
that “off-record” meeting that trump invited folks to? wound up being a prolonged shouting match between him and every reporter currently on tv who ever had the gall to, according to him, talk about his behaviour in any kind of critical way whatsoever.
think about this for a moment. the press has literally been treating him with kid gloves so far, and given him SO MUCH of the benefit of the doubt that they shouldn’t even have given him, and he STILL thinks that the press was “unfair” and “critical” of him and his atrocious behaviour. so much so that he invited them to a meeting with the specific intention of shouting at them for it, trying to intimidate them into silence, and had them agree to it before hand that none of his behaviour would ever be widely reported since it was “off-record.”
this is suppression of the press. this is what infringing on press freedom looks like. even the current level of reporting on trump by news outlets is insufficiently subservient for his ego.
