Story time.
I filmed the Trump inauguration, in particular a team of us split up and covered the various groups participating in “Disrupt J20.”
Each of us followed a different “group” - someone hung with the LGBT focused protestors, another with indigenous peoples, etc. I hung out with…let’s say the tough and rowdy folks (I’m a white dude who had made a very convincing laminated press pass. My work was legitimate but we didn’t have formal credentials in time for this coverage so we sort of landed on a grey area tactic on that front). “Black bloc” is what they settled on for their own little banner of sorts. Lots of covered faces.
It was an exciting but generally not dangerous day. DC police are actually pretty good at de-escalating/handling situations that are escalating with a pretty firm but not power tripping response. I do not like giving any police credit, but I can tell you firsthand that they were not going to make the situation worse. At least not anything I saw. This is not an endorsement other than to say they clearly had experience and common sense from what we saw in the specific matter of handling massive organized protests. I only say this because I’ll always give credit where credit is due and more you’ll see later.
I filmed folks break windows of BofA, a trash can was thrown and lit on fire, it got rowdy but even so it sort of capped itself off. The group self regulated and it never got truly violent.
All of this is to say that there was one moment where I truly felt concerned for my life. NRA TV showed up. These guys were cosplaying like they were walking straight out of Kabul, it was insane. Then a bunch of MAGA-hat wearing folks came up to me while I was filming an interview encircled me. The interviewee was a black woman who clearly was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and pushed away out of the circle. Before I could step away, one of them grabbed my shoulder and screamed “fuck you fake news!” and pushed me. I immediately threw my hands up and said “do not fucking touch me I am a member of the press” and one of them shouted “you’ll get what you deserve race traitor.” At this point (callback to the top of this comment) a DC police officer started walking over and clearly looked concerned. He looked at me and I nodded and he moved a little faster. This is not bullshit, it happened.
I am relieved to say they all walked off quickly and left me alone after that. But it was the first time in my life I ever felt like my line of work was dangerous. After my first kid was born I stopped covering protests, I’m sad to say.
If you were near the Capitol, you were likely dealing with Capitol Hill police. I worked there for seven years and can vouch first-hand, as an extremely anti-cop person, that they were almost always good, helpful, non-power-trippy people. They were on-guard at all times as their only job was guarding the Capitol, so they were used to dealing with all sorts.
Thank you for the correction! I definitely meant CH police
Capitol police training and oversight for the entire nation when
Before I could step away, one of them grabbed my shoulder and screamed “fuck you fake news!” and pushed me.
I know, no use for asking logic or coherent thoughts here. But - why would you be there if you made all up anyway?
My interpretation was he saw “a lib with a camera” talking to a black woman and immediately assumed it was nefarious
They know it is not fake, they say things like that as a mnemonic aid. Like a Homeric epithet. He’s reminding his pals that they all hate the news as he attacks a press person.
Images like this show why it’s so important to vote
No, no, no… The orange man has assured me that it was the biggest crowd of all time. Probably more people than had ever been in one place at the same time. And he surely wouldn’t lie to me.
Don’t worry he wasn’t lying to you, he was just presenting alternative facts .
Literally (news coverage of) day one of his term, and KAC coined a term that defined the entire administration.
Voting Vs “My vote doesn’t matter anyways.” or “They’re all the same anyways.”
And for those of you who are in a similar situation as me, where your presidential vote for the most part doesn’t matter (Trump’s going to win by a minimum of 15 points in my state), your votes on down ballot issues do matter.
Local and state elections are where change starts. So get out there and vote, even if it’s mostly doing harm reduction.
The same is true for blue states.
If your vote is not important because your state is locked in on a presidential candidate, local issues / candidates are worth voting on. They can have a more direct impact on your day to day.
I’m gonna piggyback on this to make a related point:
If you take it down from +15 points to +14 points, that’s gonna cost the GOP more money next time around. You don’t have to win your state to make an impact. If you can make it more expensive to win your state, that takes funds away from their campaigns in other states.
(And if you make it cheaper for Democrats to win your state, that frees up funds for campaigns in other states.)
you could also vote for a different president candidate, like “none of the above” while voting for a local candidate you do like.
Why would that mean anything?
There are really only three choices. Democrat, Republican, and “I don’t care you guys pick”.
It’s doesn’t mean anything because that’s what everyone thinks the choices are.
If someone other than D or R started to get some serious traction, you could see a snowball over 8-12 years.
Not really, the feedback cycle is that as a third party gains traction, the party most similar will lose support till the other party will dominate. This still continues till the third party quits or takes over and the previous pary stops.
This leads to Republicans sponsoring third parties more similar to Democrats and Democrats sponsoring parties more similar to Republicans.
The only way to get out of this cycle is to implement some other sort of voting, ranked choice for example. I’m all for that, but until then, voting third party will only hurt the ideology closest party.
First past the post always devolves into a two party system. The electoral college prevents any medium sized change from having an impact.
Half of D and R vote that way because they identify that way. They won’t change. A third party would have to get EVERYONE else to have a chance. And that will never happen in the current system. Never. Fantasy Land.
Idealism over efficacy is why the world moves to the right.
While I’m used to the issues of FPTP, I can’t pretend to understand the basic premise behind the electoral college.
Independents can get elected and new parties can arrise in FPTP, despite being more difficult than some other systems; so my guess is that I’m wildly underestimatong the fuckery that is the electoral college.
Nearly everyone thinks that’s what the choices are because they are cognizant of reality.
Yeah, as other’s have pointed out, I’m really underestimating the issues of the electoral college in the USA.
Now imagine how big the crowd would be for Harris!
Or don’t.
Because until 2017, nobody gave a crap about the size of the crowd. Normal Presidents have had more important things to think about in their first 100 days in office.
I only care because I know it pisses Trump off.
Know what pisses him off even more? Not mentioning his name.
Better tell the media that. He’ll never know whether or not people on here are.
Fr, like which sovereign nations they will impose sanctions on. Will 30% seem tyrannical? How many should I drop bombs on?
That kind of thing.
no one wants to hear your bitchin
2021 had very few people because of corona.
2021 had very few people because of corona
Just another day of Biden supporters repeating claims trump supporters used to make.
Biden didn’t get elected because people wanted him to be president, he got elected because in the general he was the only option not named trump.
Expecting him to draw a crowd like 08 Obama is just ridiculous
They actively discouraged people from coming because of corona. That’s why it isn’t comparable.
Also it was weeks after January 6th, security was high and I’m sure everyone who was there was on edge imagining a crazy MAGA supporter with a gun or a bomb.
Man if only there was some word for using violence to instill fear in political opponents.
Oh well.
yeah without corona I have no doubt he would have atracted as many as obama but it would be a crowd just so happy its not trump anymore.
But even without that stuff, Biden never had what Obama had in 08.
People travelled from all over, it was a huge deal and people were literally celebrating in the streets nationwide.
Some of that was because we getting rid of GW, but most of it was excitement about Obama.
In 2020 there wasn’t excitement from anyone, just relief.
OK… Nobody claimed he would have anything like what Obama had.
But the biggest factor for turnout was still covid.
It’s weird that you’re turning this into some sort of “man look at blue maga here!” thing.
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Never get involved in a land war in Asia
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Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line
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Never get into a dick-measuring contest with Barack Obama.
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To be fair, in 2008 Obama and Hillary Clinton were viable candidates (despite not being a white Christian rich man) because the US public was really tired of Republican shennanigans, and of the Bush administration specifically. While McCain seemed reasonable Sarah Palin was scary and the McCain campaign took its cues from the ur-Maga Karl Rove / Tea-Party Republican talking points, who were only onto public benefits if no-one else got them.
Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for simply not being
TrumpBush and admitted as much it was rather silly when he promised to work to rise to the level of deserving it.Sadly, Obama retained a lot of Bush policies and was more neoliberal than we needed.
I really thought after Bush, we’d never vote for a Republican president again, nor would we allow one to win by the EC. I was wrong and the US paid for it dearly. So I’m really sore and bitter about the whole affair.
Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for simply not being Trump
Do you mean Bush here? He got the prize in 2009, Trump wasn’t even politically active for another 6 years.
Yes. Fixed!
but whatabout
Get some new material you shameless hack.
Don’t reply, just downvote you coward
Here’s Obama’s from SPAAAAAAAACE
https://content.satimagingcorp.com/static/galleryimages/geoeye-1-obama-inauguration-2009.jpgI’ve never been there, but I know my way around thanks to division 2
I went there right after playing Fallout 3. It was eerily familiar. Looks way better in person.
So strange to see gathered humans as piles of ash. What a view.
Wait, there’s another satellite at bottom left.
Surprised at how ugly the area is.
It’s prettier in the spring and summer
Why not have election in spring then?
“How pretty the natural landscape is” isn’t typically a requirement when planning elections.
boo
I mean, I think aesthetics are important which is why I think the debates ought to include a swimwear and ballgown competition too
good point; what are we even doing with these elections
Priorities I suppose.
Yeah, it’s definitely no Paris or Rome. But it’s a little better in the spring and summer.
Queen Elizabeth II:
Well I didn’t vote for her!
Continuing the quote Filthy peasant!
Well, the lady of lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water…
The power to govern comes by a mandate from the masses, not because some watery tart threw a sword at you!
Be quiet!
I mean, if I went around saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!
You don’t vote for a queen!
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
A shrubbery!
Downvoted for quoting monty python, what has the nerd world become.
I think there’s a meme I’m missing here. Apologies.
Although I think for a mainly ceremonial head of state who has the power and doesn’t use it except to use if like, a hitler tries to take power and remove democracy, it’s better to not have people vote for them. Because then only those who are willing to lie and cheat their way to the top and popularity will win, so you’re basically guaranteed to get a scumbag. While with hereditary monarchy you’re basically rolling the dice. Like the worst thing our king has done was cheat on his wife which is pretty bad, but it’s not Trump level bad. Another issue is if you elected someone, they’ll only be liked by the people who voted them in generally and only represent them, vs a monarch who the only real dislikers are people opposed to the system. And even then, monarchs have pretty high approval ratings compared to political/elected head of states. Charles has a popularity rating of 56%, with 26% neutral towards him and only 16% disliking him. Although Princess Anne is more popular with 68% popularity and only disliked by 10%.
Princess of Wales (our next Queen Deo Volente) is the highest with 71% popularity, disliked by 8%
(Source: YouGov)
It’s a Monty Python reference. When Arthur is speaking to the peasants in the field in Holy Grail.
I’ve seen that film. I might need to rewatch it
Wow, her inauguration was so big the crowd stretched all the way to the UK!
I was pretty sure it was gonna be a shit show as soon as the election results came in, but the fact the dumbass lied so obviously and pathetically only hours into his term really ironed in how fucked the next four years were gonna be.
I was one of those idiots going back and watching old Trump interviews and thinking, “Well, see, this dude can’t be the total idiot he’s putting on display today. Maybe he’s playing some crazy game and he won’t be as bad as he looks like he’s going to be.”
That lie made it clear to me that my stupid theory was no good. He won, there was no point in playing a character.
He got fame and attention for being exactly what he is. He doesn’t need to be anything else.
harris’s will be more packed than obama’s
I mean, I watched bush’s inauguration as a kid, and was stoked for Obama’s having voted in my first presidential election.
Purely based on “middle aged white guy=mid numbers” and “first black president=large numbers” I feel that “first Woman, and second POC” will mean bigly numbers.
If it’s not, I’ll be amazed.
There were more protesters at Trump’s event than supporters
Some of those people are still facing legal trouble too. Look out for your comrades.
There were also massive numbers of protesters at other events. Too bad it wasn’t a general strike.
I was at George W.'s inauguration with a school group, and it wasn’t as packed as Obama’s but it blew Trump’s out of the water, and it was cold and windy AF.
I was at George W.'s inauguration
Washington? Wow.
must has been the second one
**Lmfao
I wonder if it confuses the shit out of foreigners when we refer to Bush Jr. As George W.
It ain’t George Washington. President George Washington always gets his name stated, no abbreviation.
Reminds me of Spicy’s first presser…. His tone and attitude had me immediately realize the next 4 years would be rough…
Spicey, the man who got fired because SNL mocked him. Melissa McCarthy with that motorized podium was amazing. It was almost too good, because it killed the golden calf that would have given them a ton of material.
OP sjmarf, I tried to feel you out a bit, hard to get a read on your age based on your comment history. But I gather you live in the UK. Idk if you’ve always lived there, or immigrated.
I was a younger American at the time of 2009 Inauguration, but I can tell you the general feeling in the air that day: fucking excitement. It was truly electric; whether you were for or against Obama, you’re just kind of forced to take a few steps back & go… Wow. America has officially elected a black President. It was unprecedented, it was almost kind of strange because you’ve got people always screaming about how racist America can be. But there we were. Obama was handsome. Charismatic. Hell, if I were in town, I probably would have been there, too. Just for the sheer spectacle of it all & witnessing history unfold.
Going from that to another white (/orange) man taking the office, kinda old hat, kinda business as usual. I’m telling you, there’s simply no honest way to compare the two events.
I also want to take a moment & say thank you for your content creation & possibly upkeep on the Lemmy platform. I had to filter out your posts, there’s so much material you’ve contributed. Thanks. 👍🏻
Electing the first Oompa Loompa should be an event too.
He keeps the chocolate in his diaper.
