The torches and pitchforks came out for Trump last night

Last night, my wife and I watched as Donald Trump's rally on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus was "postponed" in the face of massive protests.  They were at least one step above calls to 'Dump Trump' and 'Arrest Snyder' at the Detroit Republican Debate.  My wife said that "the torches and pitchforks came out for the Trumpenstein monster last night."  Yes, they have, but a different image came to my mind.

The protests and the conflict afterward stuck me as just one step short of Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold fighting with the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten during the Weimar Republic.*  The mainstream media's came off as less alarmed, but not by very much.  Watch ABC News's summary of the incident for Nightline: Trump Postpones Chicago Rally as Crowds of Protesters Gather.

Hundreds of protestors and supporters took to the streets after the GOP frontrunner canceled an event amid security concerns.

I'll return to the comparison to 1968 later.  Right now, I'll outsource my take on the responsibility for the atmosphere to Michael Smerconish on CNN, who contends TRUMP HAS SHOUTED "FIRE" IN A POLITICAL THEATER.

Smerconish assesses Donald Trump's role in contributing to the environment of anger in America, after chaotic protests cancelled a Chicago rally.

As one can see, the news media has changed its tone when covering the Trump campaign.  In part, it's because violence against protesters, who are mostly members of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, at Trump's rallies and other campaign events is a real story.  As both reports show, Trump has contributed to the atmosphere that allows such behavior and capitalized on the prejudices of his supporters.  That's not new.

Follow over the jump for what I think has changed.

Hurricane names show that sexism harms the sexists

In yesterday's Recycled comments about the men's rights movement, I described my online encounter with a den of rabid sexists and how their "inflammatory, paranoid, rigidly doctrinaire, and downright hostile" behavior got in the way of accepting something that would help them.  Today, I present evidence that sexism harms the sexists themselves from Laci and Tara of Discovery News, who explain Why Female-Named Hurricanes Are More Deadly.

A groundbreaking new study revealed that hurricanes that are named after a women are more deadly than hurricanes with male names! What's the reasoning for this? Tara and Laci discuss how people don't take hurricanes with female names as seriously as those with male names!

Actually, I'd find Bertha more threatening than Reginald, but that's probably just me, as the former sounds tougher than the latter.

Follow over the jump for my reflections on the utility of naming storms and a meta observation on the comments to this video.

Black Friday: Buy Nothing Day and Boycott WalMart

First, here's my general opinion of the day.


Second, watch Kalle Lasn, the founder of AdBusters, who came up with the idea of Buy Nothing Day (and Occupy Wall Street for that matter) on CNN last year explaining the rationale for his boycott of consumerism. Also note how much the CNN interviewer scoffs at him. Too bad for her that's he's more right than she'll let on.


Last year, I was able to comply with Lasn's request, but I don't think I'll be able to this year. However, there is one boycott I will do my absolute best to comply with. Gawker gives two reasons why.

Walmart, the ninth circle of Black Friday Hell, looks like it will be even more nightmarish than usual, and "usual" is that someone gets trampled to death.

The second reason is one of the reasons why last year's Black Friday was Buy Nothing Day for me, but the first reason is new. Gawker can explain that one, too.

Knick-knack monster Wal-Mart is facing an uncharacteristically well-organized worker strike this Friday, on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The company is scared enough to try to get the NLRB to tell the company's own employees they can't protest. Since we can't imagine that that long-shot attempt at crushing dissent will be successful, you should be ready for Wal-Mart Black Friday: Protest Edition.

Will you drive on over to your local Wal-Mart on Black Friday morning, only to find yourself confronted by capitalism's misdeeds, in the form of protesting Wal-Mart workers demanding something approaching a living wage?

No. I'm going to support the strikers by staying away.

Speaking of demanding a living wage...

Also, if you're interested in the economics of this issue, here is a study that Demos released yesterday that says that raising the salary of all full time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1% price increase for customers...

We will also note that Wal-Mart has decided to pay its dividends early in order to minimize its taxes, in a move that could save members of the Walton family "as much as $180 million in federal income taxes." Please contrast this to the ostentatious displays of patriotic rhetoric generally associated with Wal-Mart.

Time for another book/movie poster.


As Gawker concluded their article, "have a black, black Friday."

Tea Party Patriots founder Mark Meckler arrested

From Gawker, filed under Crazies.

Tea Party Founder Walks Into Airport, Presents Gun, Is Arrested

He was arrested at the Delta counter in La Guardia Airport for not having a New York gun license to go with his gun. What Gawker doesn't say, but CBS does, is that he was taking that gun to Detroit. Am I ever glad he didn't get here!

Also, when he was released, he ran away from reporters into a street so dangerous it's called the "Boulevard of Death." Watch the video at the Raw Story link; it looks even worse than the description. So much for his spinning this episode into making a principled stand on behalf of the Second Amendment!

ETA: If you want to read more about Meckler and his organization, read Fiction vs. Fact for the Tea Party Patriots. It's quite enlightening.

Gawker, down on pet gifts, up with drinking gifts

Gawker continues their snarky ways by suggesting gifts for dog owners to give their pets, all the while pointing out that the money could be used in better ways.

You love your dog. Far more than your emotionally distant heart could ever love a human. And why not? Your dog never did anything but express an evolutionarily advantageous convincing simulacrum of love for you. You must show your love back. You must! But what to get Nibbles and Rocky this holiday season? Only the best.

I won't bother with the dog gifts. Instead, I'll direct you all to the causes Gawker suggests your money would be better spent on.

Funding for family planning in sub-Saharan Africa
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Doctors Without Borders
Homeless children
Red Cross disaster relief

Ironically enough, given the link to M.A.D.D. above, the next gift guide displayed a positive attitude about drinking related gifts.

You and your friends have decided to exchange gifts for the holidays. And you're stumped: It's not like you're going to get one of your boys clothing or jewelry, and it's not like any of you would suggest something on the order of a "stocking stuffer," since your girlfriend can worry about that.

You and your boys speak a common language that involves sports and drinking, or drinking and sports, or drinking while watching or talking about sports. Which means the way to go is with something that caters to what you all enjoy. So here's a short list of boozy ideas to help make it easy for you.

Those gifts are fun, but that money might still be better off being donated to M.A.D.D.

Gawker is in a "Bah, humbug" mood

Not content with gifts for people you hate and the five stupidest kinds of Christmas gifts, which I linked to here, Gawker has continued its gift guide of booby-trapped and stupid gifts with Horrible Christmas Gifts for the Children of People You Hate and Top Five Gifts Under Five Cents. Both of them are fiendishly creative. As for why anyone would give gifts from these two gift guides, I'll let John Cook and Adrien Chen explain. First, John.

There is no better way to ruin someone's holiday than to arm their children with the tools to endlessly annoy them. Here are some suggestions.

After you have children, you quickly learn to fear birthdays and holidays. More dreadful than even the sugar psychoses and attention tantrums is the destabilizing influence of gifts: Into your carefully calibrated world of punishment and reward are thrust these wrapped mysteries from clueless relatives and negligent friends. If you're not careful—if you don't establish and enforce rigid operational security to prevent your children from becoming aware of the existence of a boxed present from Uncle Ed in the closet—you can find yourself thrown into a nightmare of someone else's making.

Here are some good ways to use your friends' children as proxies in a war of annoyance.

Among John's suggestions are chemistry sets (as a scientist, I'd suggest binoculars or a telescope instead), ice cream makers, Veggie Tale videos, and Daddles. That last one is perfect for kids of men with bad backs.

Now Adrien.

The economy is crappier than a Porta-Potty at an outdoor electronic dance music festival. We've all got to pinch pennies, and the holidays are no exception. So, we present our top five gifts under five cents.

Most "cheap" gift guides stop at $25—even $100. But if you're going to be cheap, be cheap. Now, you might be saying: "Pshaw. What could I possibly buy for nickel? I'm going to go take out a fourth mortgage on my home to buy my kids those Justin Bieber Xbox-enabled jet skis." That's the kind of attitude that got us in this mess in the first place, buddy! With these gifts, you can fulfill all your holiday gift-giving obligations for less than a Kit-Kat bar.

Among Adrien's suggestions are a single piece of anise candy (imagine hard candy with the taste of licorice), wooden plugs, a tiny piece of amber, and a pre-decimalization UK coin. The first and last might actually be interesting to the right people.

By the way, the idea to post these links is a gift in its own way. Gawker is sending them to my email inbox. Nothing better than a gift-wrapped blog entry idea delivered directly to me every day!

Terrible gifts from Gawker

No, I'm not kidding. Gawker is starting their holiday gift guides this year with gifts for people you hate and the five stupidest kinds of Christmas gifts. The first category shows some cruel creativity. The second shows absolutely no creativity. Both of them ask for comments from readers. This being Gawker, the commenters are pretty inventive and open, enough so that one comment was elevated into an article of its own: Comment of the Day: Are you there God? It’s me, Summer’s Eve. Yes, it's exactly what you think it is.  It should come as no surprise that it was inspired by "Gifts for people you hate."

Gawker on Michigan

Gawker has been running a series on the worst 50 states in America this week. Here is what they had to say about Michigan.

35. Michigan
The mitten-shaped land of miseries is a scenic and scenically troubled place to call home.

The Good: Boy oh boy is Michigan pretty. What with all them lakes they got up there and all that crazy snow and stuff. Did you ever watch this beautiful show? That covers the UP pretty well.

If you click on the link to the Sundance Channel, the theme to "Nimrod Nation" autoplays, which would be annoying if the tune weren't so pretty.

And say what you will about Detroit, but there's a kind of hard-boned, old-school urbanness to that city that is a rare commodity in 2011.

That didn't make Model D Media's Buzz section. To see why, keep reading.

The Bad: "Hard-boned, old-school urbanness" is a polite way of saying that Detroit is an absolute hellhole, the kind of place that you think about and wish that we could allocate some funds to just airlift everyone the fuck out of there. Flint and Grand Rapids aren't doing much better. Michigan can sometimes feel like a scary totem of what's to come for the rest of this fading super-nation, so it's kind of annoying to constantly have that reminder, ever teasing us.

Gawker is deliberately being a bunch of snarky clowns, but they could have ranked the state much lower higher. Honestly, I was expecting worse.

As for the passage in bold, I prefer to see a glass half full. To paraphrase:

Welcome to Detroit, Ground Zero of the post-industrial future. Great things are going to happen here, and they're going to happen here first. Whatever Detroit devises as the solutions for North America's problems will be exported to the rest of the continent. It's an exciting time to live here, and I wouldn't miss it for the world.