Hey tunic,
that's funny and all, but I'm just wondering: do you live in the U.S.?

This is exactly the kind of thing that is feeding Trump and his supporters. His approval rates may be down, but he still has a lock on people's fears. Activists are being labeled rioters. Actual rioters are being used to drive home the perspective that Trump is somehow protecting the nation from seething, aggressive, violent threats to the American way of life.

Personally, I'm trying to take a more restrained approach to this, and I've had more success convincing Trumpeters of the genuine threats he and his administration pose when I distance myself from this kind of thing. Every emotional, angry response to this insanity is being construed as confirmation of Trump's beliefs and the necessity of his presence in the White House by scared little xenophobes everywhere.

Just saying.

Also, I did attend a congressional town hall meeting, but had to do so in a professional capacity which meant removing my opinions from the situation entirely.

A lot of angry people showed up to hold their rep. accountable for putting off constituents. A lot of happy people also showed up to tell those angry people to shut up, but overall it was satisfying to hear people cheer when audience members asked important questions about how their rep. felt about Russian hacking, the lifting of EPA regulations, the massive problem of repealing ACA, and the shutting out of the press.

Has anyone else attended a town hall or "coffee hours" or anything of the sort? I want to stress again that this is extremely important. These elected officials need to see how pissed off people are. Public opinion is the thing. We all want to protect our jobs, and when politicians feel that their ability to retain the seat back might be slipping away, self-preservation will eventually kick in, and they'll start "looking out for no. 1" and go with the tide.

If your reps aren't holding town halls, or are avoiding constituents, and you're kissed about it, you should be calling them every single day. Literally... every day. Don't let up.

Things are going to get so much worse. There's no time to waste.

No, I'm Dutch. But those pictures come (mostly) from Germany. It was Carnival this week, so there were parades all over the place in certain parts of certain European countries.

We have our own elections coming up in Netherlands on the 15th of March. We have a choice of 20+ parties to choose from, Wilders' party is currently on top in the polls. So I'm very much fearing that he will win the elections. But even if he wins, it wouldn't make him the president. He needs to form a coalition with other parties and none of the bigger parties want to cooperate with him. At least that's what they're saying now ...

^ Oh neat. Another bully. Just what we need. (Wilders I mean.)


I let up.

You don't get what it's like in a gerrymandered district. My rep has no earthly reason to hold an open town hall. What's the worst that'll happen? People who weren't going to vote for him still aren't?

My rep did meet with one or two local organizations. In one, he said he feared a Gabby Giffords incident at a town hall. Hilarious considering his very stubborn policy against any sort of gun control.

You didn't mention if your rep was rep or dem.

yeah that's from the german carnival!

there's a very long tradition of making fun of the powerful during carnival-- at least outside the US

the poor get to be kings and the kings get made fun of

happy mardi gras "y'all"

I have no idea what it's like to live in a gerrymandered district?

You couldn't be more wrong on that one, friend.

My guy's a Republican. Has been for a couple of years now since I moved out of the city. Certainly a far cry from where I cast my first ballots in the Pacific Northwest. I've lived and voted in a lot of different places. I happen to be in a super fucked up place right now, even without gerrymandering. But I'm new to the area still.. maybe I'll lose my fire after a couple more years of getting absolutely fucking nowhere.

Sad to hear you say you let up.

I'm thinking about trying to move back to Washington state. I'd have to go broke, and be ok with pretty much being broke forever, because it's ridiculously expensive to live there, but I'm going to start sending out resumes.

you can live wherever you want if you learn to live cheaply instead of like an aspirational spender

i can hook you up with good literature

This is also known as living like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: in the sewer and eating bits of pizza from the trash.

but, you may get aspiration pneumonia down in the sewers, though....

haaaa haaa haaaaa haaaaa

you're doing it wrong, fool!

Baha!

pizza costs very little to make btw

selling pizza is good business

so.... i read the orange fucker's speech. i read instead of watching cuz i can't stand his gaping piehole.

and it wasn't a bad speech actually. i disagree strongly with some parts, and he still bullshits of course (what politician doesn't), but overall it seemed well written.

i hate the fact that i liked parts of it, but there it is: i did.

Shit, Sev, I got rich in Washington....then lost a lot of it in Oregon..

Didn't watch, didn't read. Just went to youtube to check out Colbert's response. Leave me alone. My bubble's comfy.

Oh yeah... you're the one whose from WA (that I know of).

Anywau, good for you. I don't know Oregon as well as I know Washington, so I'll have to assume until you correct me that you got rich on either a) Windows or Starbucks investments that we all wish we'd made in like 1994 or b) by being a post-Amazon/tech boom/gentrification real estate mogul... and that you lost it on either heroin or coffee.

Now you have to tell me, bevause in my head right now you're the most bottom-hitting junkie ever.

I didn't watch either. Didn't read. Non-stop barrage of AP alerts containing bits and pieces is all I can take right now, but I will say this:

Blaming William Owens' death on the military/Obama admin. is, while factually true (guy wouldn't be dead if he hadn't signed up) the most fucking repugnant thing I've heard... well, I was going to say "ever," but instead I'll go for "this week."

Really, Donald? No "he was a hero, this was a tragedy, the high cost we pay to secure our freedom" bullshit even? Just ... blame shirking? I wonder how veterans are going to respond to that.

One vet I know, who served in Afghanistan and enlisted immediately after 9/11, said "I would never serve under this man." Hopefully more people feel the same way.

nope, we gained it because the wages are high in Wa, and I got huge amounts of overtime. Plus the sales tax there didn't hurt much, since I've never been a real consumer. NO INCOME TAX in Wa!! Then, in Oregon, similar cost of living, way worse tax structure (IMO, but not according to many others). OR relies a lot on property taxes, which are horribly inequitable, even from house to house on a single block, let alone from city to city and county to county, etc. And then OR has a very non-progressive income tax, so that I pay the same rate as a really rich fuck, even though I'm far from that now, more mid-mid or lower mid now..the big problem here in OR was that I got a huge pay cut moving here, and then Ms Ild was never able to find good work here in Science. She did micro-biology lab work, very well remunirated in WA but in OR they hire college students and pay min wage......I did great in Wa, you can, too!