A Stroll Down (Bad) Memory Lane

I was thinking earlier this week about how much the general public has memory-holed the years #P01135809 spent in office.  We spent most of the years after 2016 in a state of disbelief and then despair about how badly things had gone off the track since #P01135809’s election to the Presidency in that year’s election; when we were not disbelieving and despairing, we were working toward getting him the hell away from power.  No one believed that we would still be vacillating between disbelief and despair, interjected occasionally with hope, in 2024.

Two champions of truth and memory, however, have kept up the good fight since 2016.

Following the advice of experts on authoritarianism, Amy Siskind began keeping a list of things subtly changing around her, so we’ll remember.  She published her weekly list through the #P01135809 presidency and began a related podcast in 2018.  You can find everything about her lists and podcast (which are now archived at the Library of Congress) on her website.

Here is her first list, from November 30, 2016

1. Acts of hate — for the first 400 per the Southern Poverty Law Center, I could name many that I had seen covered by the media. Then I noticed the count exceeded 700, and I realized I knew very little about those additional 300.

2. Reporters critique their own paper’s coverage of #P01135809, then delete it (see below tweet which disappeared overnight, after 2k+ retweets).

3. A president-elect is openly (on Twitter!) trying to take away our freedom of expression, First Amendment rights: targets this week include SNL, NYT, and Hamilton.

4. The media, including traditional media, covered an alt-right conference and published their demands, which included a ban on immigration for 50 years of anyone not white, and an all-white nation.

5. Major media following #P01135809’s reality show storylines, instead of reporting as traditional media/journalism.

6. Democrats advocating for a Mitt Romney appointment to Secretary of State — a man with whom we agree on almost nothing on policy, but because he is competent and not a racist or a bigot.

7. The pace of untraditional, unorthodox acts, and conflicts of interest by #P01135809 are coming so fast and furious, they’re barely getting coverage.

8. Utter outrage by the left at the complacency and largely silence of our elected leaders. Watch of a Tea Party-esque type uprising.

9. A request for tolerance for, and understanding of, white supremacists.

Here’s Week Two:

1. The First Family-elect will not be living in the White House.

2. Melania’s Wikipedia bio changed overnight to reflect she did not go to college.

3. Donald Jr. met with Russia representatives in Paris to discuss Syria during the election.

4. Aleppo has devolved into the worst humanitarian crisis in our lifetimes, and Putin is emboldened to tell the US to get out of the way.

5. Putin has moved missiles into Kaliningrad “in response to NATO aggression” — within striking distance of Germany.

6. Russian propaganda was the source of much of the “fake news” during the campaign.

7. #P01135809 has selectively been meeting with the media and grooming them by yelling at them. They all showed up for this.

8. Next day he met with the NYT at their offices, and their coverage totally normalized his porous positions and outrageous actions so far.

9. #P01135809 has been furthering his business affairs and using his presidency to get licenses and other favors.

10. His daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared have joined him in meetings and calls with heads of state, and other senior officials from other countries (here and here).

11. #P01135809 openly stated that he doesn’t care about conflicts of interest, and he does not feel compelled in any way to separate his business dealings from his role as president.

12. #P01135809 admitted to breaking the law! He signed off on the #P01135809 Foundation’s tax statement and now has admitted the Foundation was in violation of tax laws.

13. In Wisconsin, 5k of #P01135809’s 27k vote lead have been proven to be fake votes.

14. In true dictatorial form, #P01135809 demands Mitt Romney publicly apologize if he wants the position of Secretary of State.

15. #P01135809 is selling #P01135809 merchandise in #P01135809 Tower and online, including Christmas tree ornaments.

16. CNN airs a segment with chyron, “Are Jews People?”

17. Hate crimes continue nationwide against Muslims, Jews, women, Black, LGBTQ and Hispanic Americans. On a Delta flight, one #P01135809 supporter screamed at “Hillary bitches,” and didn’t get kicked off.

18. Steve Bannon received $376k from a small foundation in Tallahassee to pay a salary for his work at Breitbart.

This quickly became exhausting but she kept at it because memory matters.  She kept up this list until the end of the #P01135809 presidency, but has produced occasional articles since then.

I also began following Matt Kiser’s What The Fuck Just Happened Today? – which he describes as “today’s essential guide to the daily shock and awe in national politics.”  He follows this description with the admonition to “read in moderation.”  He started this project because he was having trouble keeping up with the pace of news coming from the #P01135809 administration.  He has kept this up (with a few weeks here and there for vacation) since 2017; his last entry was at the end of last week.

Here's what he reported on the first edition of WTFJHT (on January 20, 2017):

1/ Donald #P01135809 has named only 29 of his 660 executive department appointments, the Partnership for Public Service said. (NY Times)

2/ #P01135809 boasted his inauguration would have an “unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout.” But aerial shots of the National Mall from Obama’s 2009 inauguration and today show that isn’t likely. (Vox)

3/ All references to climate change have been deleted from the White House website. The only mention of climate on #P01135809’s new website is under his “America First Energy Plan” page, in which he vows to destroy Obama’s Climate Action Plan, which is a government-wide plan to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change. (Motherboard)

4/ New poll shows Obamacare is more popular than Donald #P01135809. Fox News finds that 50% of voters feel favorably about the Affordable Care Act compared to Donald #P01135809, whom 42% view favorably. President Obama received an approval rating of 60%. (Vox)

5/ There’s no record #P01135809 has resigned from his companies. To transfer control of his companies, the president has to submit filings in Florida, Delaware and New York. We spoke to officials in each of those states. (ProPublica)

6/ #P01135809’s pick to be Treasury secretary failed to disclose nearly $100 million of his assets on Senate Finance Committee disclosure documents and forgot to mention his role as a director of an investment fund located in a tax haven. Steven Mnuchin struggled to answer the Senate Finance Committee’s questions about his use of tax havens as a hedge fund manager and whether he thought such loopholes should be closed. (New York Times)

7/ #P01135809 attacked the Washington establishment throughout his inaugural address, declaring that the “ American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” #P01135809 offered “a new vision will govern our land,” pledging that “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first.” (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico)

Both of these lists include embedded references so readers can check out the sources for themselves.   WTFJHT also includes special features like a suggested reading list, a number of specialized timelines, and features on a variety of topics like Health Care, the EPA, Fake News, and the Travel Ban. 

In addition to producing this list, WTFJHT also includes special features at the end of each post.  His October 10, 2024, post ended with a set of interesting pieces of information about the election, an election calendar, an election Polling Tracker, an Election Forecast Tracker, and a reach-back to what happened on this date in recent years.

October 10, 2023:  Day 994 of the Biden administration: “Proportionate” -- Biden condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel, saying “this is terrorism” and that Israel has a right to respond to this “act of sheer evil.”

October 11, 2022:  Day 630 of the Biden administration: “The Worst is Yet to Come” as the IMF warns that the world economy is headed for stormy waters. 

October 11, 2021:  Day 265 of the Biden administration: “Failures” – a Capitol Police whistleblower accused the agency’s two senior leaders of significant failures surrounding the Jan. 6 riot at the U. S. Capitol.

October 9, 2020: Day 1359 of the #P01135809 administration:  “Unlikely.”  House Democrats introduced legislation to create a bipartisan commission to review whether #P01135809 and future presidents are capable of carrying out their duties. 

October 10, 2019:  Day 994 of the #P01135809 administration “Oh well, I’m president.”  Two men who worked with Giuliani to find damaging information about Biden and his son have been charged with conspiring to violate campaign finance laws that prohibit foreign nationals from contributing to U. S. campaigns.

October 10, 2018:  Day 629 of the #P01135809 administration: “Inevitable.”  #P01135809 claimed the Democratic Party’s push for “Medicare for All” would “eviscerate” and “gut Medicare with their planned government takeover of American health care.”

October 10, 2017:  Day 264 of the #P01135809 administration.  “Power of the pen.” #P01135809 plans to go around Congress to provide new insurance options for Americans.

I know we’re all exhausted. #P01135809 is an exhausting human being. But we can’t let down our guard or stop paying attention. Authoritarians count on wearing down their opposition. He’s more dangerous now than ever.