.
GOP Platform Committee just added language stating opposition to restricting magazine capacity & banning AR-15 rifles. There was no debate.
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) July 12, 2016
The people responsible for writing the 2016 GOP platform are… divided. Per Buzzfeed:
…[A] growing number of delegates — unofficially labeled as “the brevity caucus” — [have become] frustrated with the volume and complexity of its party’s platform. These delegates believe the more than 60-page draft platform is straying from its original purpose of communicating the party’s principles to voters and veering off into unnecessary, wonky debates.
“There’s two main camps right now: There’s a small group, who want to use this for door-knocking,” said Ben Barringer, a delegate from Iowa. “The other groups wants to use it to holding legislators accountable. They want to be more verbose.”…
Graves later told BuzzFeed News in an interview that the platform committee included “frustrated policy wonks” and that the platform was getting too long and complicated to share with the average voter.
“It needs to be more of a communications tool and not the Magna Carta,” she said. “I don’t know who reads these many, many pages.”…
Checking off every single ideological box is a trademark of parties whose members feel doomed to minority status, and this year’s Repubs have a long, long list of boxes to check.
Platform committee debating definition of “unborn” versus “preborn” babies
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) July 12, 2016
GOP platform committee approves long amendment condemning U.S. v. Windsor and Obergefell decisions & quoting Scalia
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 12, 2016
Per the Washington Post:
The Republican Party on Tuesday moved closer to firmly embracing a series of staunchly conservative positions on abortion, gay rights, gun rights and immigration reform in a platform document that takes sharp aim at Obama administration policies and reinforces long-standing party orthodoxy on major issues.
Among the specific policies the platform committee endorsed here is a “border wall” that would cover “the entirety of the Southern Border and must be sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.”…
There was widespread agreement on the party’s position on economic and national security issues and the tougher stance on social issues reinforced the party’s conservative view despite Trump’s calls for relaxed abortion restrictions and his support for some rights for gay and transgender Americans.
Trump was barely mentioned by the 112-member platform committee, composed mostly of longtime conservative activists. The candidate and his team had little presence during the discussions, ceding the details of the platform to party faithful…
Proposed GOP Platform amendment on Islamic terrorism begins "We are a nation at war!"
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) July 12, 2016
Amendment softening party's position on women in combat defeated. #RNC2016
— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) July 12, 2016
Last-minute amendment proposed by NY delegate Dickerson to delete the entire platform fails after chair Barasso rules it out of order.
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) July 12, 2016
And then the last Republican president showed up on everybody’s social media feeds, just to remind us how bad things were, and could be again…
(via The Hill)
Solemn, formal occasions have always been difficult for Dubya to endure, but trying to start a line dance at a memorial service is… special.
Baud
Hopefully, Democratic ad agencies.
JGabriel
Anne Laurie @ Top:
It’s a purity spiral. They can’t argue over who’s most pure without a long list of purity tests to pass and ideological boxes to check.
rikyrah
Hey
Good Morning☺,Everyone ?
Ian
Just keep saying the three magic words. Disregard how many American (and Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian, etc) lives get destroyed in the process.
Mustang Bobby
This is an exercise in Titanic furniture arrangement, deciding what to wear in the lifeboat, whether or not the band should play the English or American version of “Autumn.” Whee!
JGabriel
Reid J. Epstein via Anne Laurie:
I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again:
It’s always the unborn with these people, never a thought for the undead.
hellslittlestangel
Gee, Anne Laurie, are you trying to get everyone’s day off to a bad start? First, the grotesqueries of the Republican platform committee, then that video of Bush — what a pathetic fucking booze-addled jerkoff he is.
(Yes, I know. Don’t kill the messenger. Anyway, the cartoon is pretty funny.)
JGabriel
@Ian:
You overestimate their humanity. Conservatives don’t merely disregard destroyed lives; they get off on it.
Hildebrand
I would love to know what Michelle Obama was thinking when W was doing his thing. Heck, even better, what was Laura thinking?
OzarkHillbilly
sigh
On the upside, my chicks are showing up this morning.
Patricia Kayden
So Republicans are digging down into their extreme rightwingism at a time when the nation has pretty much embraced marriage equality and moved on from many of the so-called culture wars? They just love being on the wrong side of history. May they go down with the T’Bag ship they’ve so enthusiastically created.
@Baud: I’m sure Secretary Clinton’s people are rubbing their hands together in glee as they read over the GOP platform. The ads write themselves.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: I assume you mean daughters. I was about to ask if you had chickens like our Front Pager, Betty Cracker.
JGabriel
Hildebrand:
“Goddamn it, I told him to take his Xanax and Alzheimer’s pills this morning.”
satby
Hoping for rain today, it’s really dry out there. A line of squalls went through yesterday north and south, but not a drop fell here. Hot spell should break too. Which is good because I am virtually useless in hot humid weather.
craigie
The Obamas look like they are indulging their idiot cousin. Which, I guess, they are.
TheMightyTrowel
@satby: we’re having a major cold snap – snow fell below 650m, though not chez moi, sadly. The house is f*ing freezing though. Damn aussi builders who don’t believe in insulation, double glazing or central heating!
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden: I too raise chickens. About a month ago a weasel found a hole in my coops defenses and slaughtered all my layers. Now I’m starting over.
debbie
@JGabriel:
They’ll just point to that as proof the GOP is a Big Tent.
satby
@TheMightyTrowel: ? hope it warms up enough to get comfy soon.
If I ever hear of a place that has a temperate climate year round, like generally between 50 to 80 degrees F, I’m moving there.
Barb2
That video of Bush is most interesting. Laura has her hands full trying to keep his feet on the ground.
There is so much anger among the GOP worker bees. That platform is insane – but probably more rational then some platforms coming from the states.
The GOP in WA hate the various Native American tribes. One year the GOP added a platform plank about stripping tribal land from the tribes. The idiot GOP has no concept of tribal sovereignty and tread rights. They sent the platform to the National GOP and that anti Native American plank was stripped out.
Berserkers – they have gone berserk and have become a mob.
debbie
@satby:
That’s what we down here call that kind of weather Michigan weather. ;)
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: That chick magnet is working, eh?
Mustang Bobby
@satby: It’s like that here from October to May. Then it gets sultry.
Barb2
@satby:
Hawaii, the slopes of Haleakuala. Fruit trees, sheep pastures.
Places on the Big Island, higher elevations, Mauna Kea side.
TheMightyTrowel
@satby: thanks! ☺i have two kitty cat hot water bottles helping to keep me warm (and biting my toes) so I’m actually doing ok. Mr. Trowel is insulating the house this year so we can install central heating next, it’s just not finished yet. Sighhhhhhhh
I actually love winter and seasonal change – grew up in Boston going leaf peeping and having snow ball fights – i just hate Australia’s shoddy architectural standards.
rikyrah
@Hildebrand:
Laura: See, that’s why I don’t take him anywhere.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: San Diego?
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Awe. Were they missing?
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: think San Diego has gotten hotter, but if I could afford there and it hasn’t, that would be fine. I’d hang out on the beach and look for the guy with Bassett hounds.
Corrected typo, my Kindle and I are at war today.
rikyrah
So, is the money on Little LeRoy Gingrich being Trump’s VP?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Hildebrand: Wasn’t Laura kicking him just out of the camera’s view?
Weird.
Cheers,
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
He mentioned that they got eaten by a weasel. And that the aftermath wasn’t pretty.
NorthLeft12
The Cons [the whole party] up here in Canada just gave up fighting against same sex marriage, finally conceding that it is the law of the land and supported by a very large majority of Canadians. Your guys do not seem to be so pragmatic.
The worst part of it is that to many RWNJs, their intransigence and bigotry is held up as some kind of virtue. You need to beat them down bad [with votes] to convince them of the error of their ways. Good luck.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby:
Horace Tabor: Wait a minute! You can’t buy a woman for money.
Mad Jack Duncan: You just try and get one without it.
JMG
No chance, alas. This is going to be a very close election. Bush vs. Gore close. The prospect of a woman as President following a black man is going to lead to white men voting for Trump in droves to protect their hand size.
satby
@NorthLeft12: they will never be convinced of the error of their ways. They’re still fighting battles they lost in the 1960s.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I’ve never been there but have a buddy who lived there for a year while building a bridge. Said it was perfect weather every day.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Ironic that the man who proclaims himself an outsider and constantly berates insiders and elites would end up choosing the ultimate insider elite as his veep.
Iowa Old Lady
The frantic resistance to marriage equality puzzles me. What possible harm does it do to anyone else? Why not live and let live?
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid: Thanx for picking up my slack.
@rikyrah: Gone to chicken heaven.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I visited San Diego in the very early 1990s and it was definitely perfect weather.
sherparick
I was reading Bill Bryson’s latest book, and at the end gives an account for why he has ended up living in England, besides marrying his lovely bride of some 40 years. Another reason he mentions is that he finds England a fundamentally sane country (he might be wondering about British sanity now after Labour chose Jeremy Corbyn as its leader and the Tory Party lead the charge on Briexit and the decapitation of its most successful electoral leader in 25 years, David Cameron).
“…But for reasons that genuinely escape me, it has also become spectacularly accommodating to stupidity. The government of the United States refuses to let academics use federal money to study gun violence if there is a chance that they might find a way of reducing the violence. It isn’t possible to be more stupid than that. If you took all the commentators from FOX News and put them together in a room and told them to come up with an idea even more pointlessly idiotic, they couldn’t do it…” Well, Bill, you really need to come over cover the Republican Convention and watch the development of the black hole of stupidity.
It is really interesting also to see the MSM, Both-Sides, corporate media fold itself into pretzels to ignore how the Republican Party has become the White Nationalist Ignoramus Party on guns, etc.
satby
@debbie: It’s nice outside right now, about 72. But the mosquitoes could eat you alive in under a minute. I hate being cooped up inside, but dousing with deep woods Deet multiple times per day isn’t my favorite alternative. I ordered mosquito netting for a queen sized bed to hang over my deck table so I can at least have coffee there in the morning.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Some photos from yesterday urban hike: Looking for Endeavour….
Matt McIrvin
@Hildebrand: I wouldn’t be too hard on W–who knows what was going on? I recall Obama getting a huge amount of crap for taking a selfie at Mandela’s memorial service.
OzarkHillbilly
@NorthLeft12:
That would just make them persecuted Christians fighting for their religious freedoms. Oh wait a minute, that’s what they are now (in their own deluded minds).
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry to hear that ??
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, and they’re still fighting battles they lost in the 1960s. With no sign of letting up.
debbie
@satby:
Skeeters during the day must be a misery. I’ve been on an anti-malarial for almost 30 years and have been bitten only a couple times.
OzarkHillbilly
@Iowa Old Lady:
HA! These are Bible beating Christians we are talking about. It is their religious duty to persecute the rest of us into heaven.
rikyrah
@sherparick:
If you don’t have the official stats on it, then you don’t have to find a solution.
Example -the right wing, and others thought Black people were pretending about Driving While Black. So, a number of states, and we got it on the federal level to just gather the information about who was being stopped. And, what do you know -it gave validation to Driving While Black.
A serious compilation of gun stats could open challenges to the NRA and the gun nuts.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Iowa Old Lady: Because God will punish us if we don’t do what the rich, white, obese, preacher-men say. Plus, it’s how the rich, white, obese, preacher-men keep in the news and make their money.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I seem to come with my own natural mosquito repellent (does NOT work on stable flies or wasps, sorry to say) as they rarely bother me.
Betty Cracker
Remember when Trump lied about “thousands of Muslims dancing in the streets” on 9/11? Now he’s lying about BLM protests, claiming that participants are holding moments of silence to honor the Dallas cop killer.
Cermet
@satby: More like 1865 … .
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah:
True, the problem is that the NRA know that as well.
scav
@Iowa Old Lady: Visible differences are scary, especially when they involve decisions different from the ones you took — and the individuals involved are happy. What if you chose wrong? If everyone does/believes all essentially the same things, then clearly you are doing/believing the right thing.
Or, at least that’s my theory, partially developed after contemplating the national myth of free individuals, roaming free, and then staring at the pages of your average HS yearbook.
Joel
The Battle Hymn is an inspired choice:
In the beauty of the lillies, Christ was born across the sea
With the glory in his bosom was transfigured you and me
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free
His truth is marching on
Mustang Bobby
@Joel: When I was in high school choir during the Vietnam war (1969), we changed the last line to “let us live to make men free.”
father pussbucket
Can you imagine PBO doing anything remotely resembling W’s dance and the shitstorm that would follow? I can’t.
OzarkHillbilly
Something tells me it won’t be the Trumpster.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
No shock at all. Not in the least.
QPAC
Dubya’s police memorial speech actually wasn’t half bad.
Another Holocene Human
@hellslittlestangel: Michelle’s face, though.
Obama’s tries so hard to just play it off as Bush’s Newt like enthusiasm for his country and not the utter dementedness that it is.
Matt McIrvin
@Joel:
If I were marching into battle and I heard the opposing army singing that, I would poop my pants.
Barb2
Mosquito repellent options
This is by REI – a outdoor activities supply shopping center. There are some alternatives to DEET.
Then there is the electronic fly swatter. Works on mosquitos and moths. Amazon sells many different models. The cheapest one works well.
Swallows and bats are the best at controlling mosquitos.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Whatever else you might think of him, he saved us from the manimals.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Expected even.
Iowa Old Lady
@scav:@OzarkHillbilly: @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: You all have better theories than I do. Mine is always projection. They’re afraid they’re not as straight as they want to believe.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@OzarkHillbilly: Perhaps the persecuted Christianists end up in weasel hell with the murderer from your area.
liberal
I don’t worship every fart uttered by Michelle Obama like some of you people do, but seeing her do her best to deal with that lunatic ape was pretty funny.
OzarkHillbilly
@Iowa Old Lady: That too. I think some think if they can save another from Hell and eternal damnation, maybe it will help ameliorate for their own impure thoughts and desires.
liberal
@sherparick:
Jesus, GFY. Who should they choose? Blairite scum who voted for the invasion of Iraq, or not to investigate Britain’s war crimes, or who voted for welfare cuts?
Matt McIrvin
@Iowa Old Lady: Traditionalist sexual morality holds that there’s one God-ordained right way for adults to be, which in this case is a married heterosexual nuclear family in which the man is the boss, the woman does what she’s told and sex is for making babies; and then there’s chaos, in which anything goes.
That’s why they’re constantly talking about slippery-slope scenarios in which gays and transgender people somehow are the same thing as pedophiles, rapists and people who marry box turtles. That’s also why same-sex marriage was such a powerful wedge issue for LGBT rights, while at the same time being a disappointing one for people who had a more revolutionary vision of upending sexual mores: it revolved around a fundamentally kind of conservative vision of people forming families. But for the traditionalists it was still just opening the door to howling chaos.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
LOL at Bush. Poor Laura. What a dunce.
satby
@Barb2: In Haiti I found that the Sawyer permetherin used on the mosquito netting resulted in lots of dead mosquitoes, not just repelled ones. So I like that for clothes and nets, it protects more than just the wearer. I just bought some off Amazon too, it will arrive when my net does.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: Poor chicks!!
@NorthLeft12: It is beyond evil that the GOP platform would include overthrowing the marriages of thousands of our fellow Americans just because they are same sex. Imagine the disruption to the lives of the married couples and their children. Yet Republicans are the party of “family values”.
Mai.naem.mobile
The Twitter machine is all atwitter about the new Quinnipiac poll which shows Trumpster doing a lot better – leading in Fla and PA.
OzarkHillbilly
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I don’t feel for her. She married him. She stays with him. Presumably there is a reason why. Either way, it’s her bed and she sleeps in it.
Baud
@Mai.naem.mobile: Good. Then Dump Trump will fail.
JPL
The dance video was interesting, but I wished they had shown the entire thing. Joe looks horrified and as far as Michelle, she did the best she could. I’d love to give her more than a penny for her thoughts.
Another Holocene Human
@Mai.naem.mobile: If Florida voted for the Lyin’ African it’s not going for Trump. Have you seen how he polls with people of color? Yowza.
Snarki, child of Loki
W’s behavior at the event was close to being the least objectionable thing he has ever done. So there’s that. Stupid, yet human, and not objectively evil. Progress!
Jeffro
@hellslittlestangel:
All I can say is, god bless both Michelle and Laura, because I would have yanked so hard on W’s arm to get him to knock it off, it probably would have dislocated.
Kay Eye
We gathered to watch the president’s speech. Mixed race group. All near – or in – tears. And then the familiar strains of the Battle Hymn of the Republic began. We watched, slack-jawed. Finally I blurted out “George Bush just can’t ever seem to get it right.”
As that great Dixie Chick Natalie Maines once said . . .
TS
@Matt McIrvin:
Bush’s dancing would have been totally acceptable at the service for Nelson Mandela. It was a celebration of Mandela’s life – he died having achieved freedom for his people and leading them into a new world. He had lived a long and incredible life. The only people who complained about the President’s picture was the US media/the GOP congress who use ANY reason – or none – to complain about President Obama.
The service in Dallas was so different to the one in S.A. in so many ways, Bush deserves to be castigated for his behavior.
Mary G
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Wow, those are amazing and made me wish I still lived up there. That was a good long hike. Thanks for posting them.
Patricia Kayden
@JMG: Hopefully that will be balanced out by the droves of White women voting for one of their own. This will be another milestone election for this country and thankfully, Secretary Clinton is running against one of the least qualified and odious men ever. Trump has a lot more talking to do and as he continues to run his mouth without a filter, he will continue to tick off minority and women voters. That’s just how he rolls.
p.a.
Too bad Cleveland looks like almost all D-listers; it should be a wall to wall hate and fear fest to rival 1992. Will be much more positive for the Dems than a lunatic platform that almost no one pays attention to.
Jeffro
@sherparick: from Bryson’s quote:
Sadly, Bryson is mistaken. The GOP is also against birth control (even though it would bring down the number of abortions) and against immigration (even though it’s a huge net positive for the country, talent- and tax-wise). There are lots of things the GOP believes in that make no sense in the real world.
Cat48
I don’t know about George Jr. Some churches in the South really get into their church music & really feel it. I was raised by Southerners so they explained this to me. George really seems intrigued by Michelle, too. He always sits by her & talks to her & holds her hand. This is the 3rd time I’ve seen him act this way. Miss Laura looks nice and she’s much more normal. Maybe Bush misses Condi. I read they Worked out together a lot.
He doesn’t seem to bother Obama at all. He gave them a ride to Mandela’s funeral on AF1 & to Africa again a year later when there was a celebration for the 1st Ladies. Interesting relationship.
Amir Khalid
Re W’s little dance: Good God, what is wrong with that man?
scav
And an OT Whoop-La! for the Tour de France going down roads I know very well. May the restobars involved make the most of it and the locals enjoy the hullabaloo (and avoid the traffic).
Humdog
@satby: I’ve got the place for you then! We run from lows in the mid 40s in winter and highs in the mid 70s in summer. You have to like rain, however. I get about 6 feet or so at my house per year but others in county get closer to 4 feet. Humboldt county California, my dream climate is my home. And, honestly, it is reasonably priced for California, small homes available in town in the 200k range. More expensive than Michigan, obviously, but perfection isn’t cheap! Come on over, I’ve got guest accommodations!
gvg
I wonder if Bush did have alzheimer’s or a mini stroke, if Laura Bush might have trouble figuring out what was wrong and what to do about it. It’s hard enough for non medically trained relatives to recognize. It’s always got some problems about taking away an adults independence, but you add in all of the Americans who have opinions on Bush who would come up with wacky conspiracy theories and the rest of us who hate him and think he was always idiotic, I think there might be extra obstacles in having him treated for something. So I am indulging in complete speculation.
We have in history the fact that Reagan’s people didn’t reveal his condition.
I have long thought that when Bill Clinton’s infidelity was revealed, that the attention of the whole world made it much harder for Hillary to even consider the ordinary thing of divorce. Easier to just hunker down.
I think there was another president whose mental condition was hidden?
Bush isn’t president anymore but the public glare and world population emotions are still there to complicate things.
After Bill’s trial on sexual harassment of Paula Jones, I changed my mind. Before I thought why should a president be above the law of everyone else and that if someone had a case, they should be able to sue any president. Afterwards with both political parties having such high stakes risk/rewards on the outcome of the trial which meant many people tried to make it come out the way they wanted without regard for the actual facts of the case, I came to think a fair impartial trial was impossible and that therefore such lawsuits as that should be put off till a president was out of office.
Since then with Bush jr and Cheney, I see where lawsuits about actions to do with their official actions still are needed but that’s really hard to codify. All of which is to say, the high office comes with a huge glare of publicity that is not always helpful.
liberal
@Jeffro:
That’s nuts.
It’s reasonable to argue that bringing in lots of labor at the top of the skill pool (e.g. doctors, programmers, etc) is a plus talentwise. Otherwise, the argument that it creates economic growth is crazy. If population increases, there’s no reason to think that per capita GDP will increase. The onus is on people who support low-wage immigration to show that it won’t depress wages at the lower end, because that’s exactly what a reasonable first-order economic model would say it would do.
And the idea of large amounts of immigration in the absence of high ad valorem taxes on land is appalling.
liberal
@gvg: Some say that as a dry drunk he can suffer neurological deterioration years after all his substance abuse.
Yeah, except that entire lawsuit was literally orchestrated by the monied right, IIRC.
OzarkHillbilly
@liberal:
Facts are crazy things. They should be outlawed.
rikyrah
Ferret Head don’t want none of the Notorious RBG
………………………………………..
Donald Trump Says Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s ‘Mind Is Shot’
By CAITLIN MACNEAL
Published JULY 13, 2016, 7:55 AM EDT
Early Wednesday morning, Donald Trump doubled down on his call for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to resign from the court over several comments to the media criticizing the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump told the New York Times on Tuesday that Ginsburg’s comments were “inappropriate” and that she should step down.
raven
@Humdog:Temporary Humbolt County
“That’s not a well. It’s the Eye of the Holy Serpent Mound, on which your standing.”
OzarkHillbilly
@liberal:
Oh and, Yeah! Why are first order economic models sooooo unreasonable?
rikyrah
Hmmmmm…
Carlson Speaks Out: Roger Ailes’ Verbal Harassment Was ‘Continuous’
By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND
Published JULY 13, 2016, 7:41 AM EDT
In her first public interview since she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, former anchor Gretchen Carlson said she came forward because she “finally felt it was time” to speak out.
“I just wanted to stand up for myself, first and foremost,” Carlson told The New York Times in a Tuesday interview at her lawyer Nancy Erika Smith’s New Jersey home. “And I wanted to stand up for other women who maybe faced similar circumstances.”
The former “Real Story” host stood by the allegations laid out in the lawsuit, claiming that Ailes made sexual advances towards her, oversaw a culture of sexual harassment at Fox News and fired her because she refused him and complained about her treatment at the network.
She told the Times that she kept quiet about the “continuous” offensive language she heard from Ailes because of the hierarchical structure of the network.
“Everyone knew how powerful Roger Ailes was,” she said. “I certainly felt intimidated by that.”
Ailes has denied all of the charges, insisting that Carlson filed the “retaliatory” suit because she was upset that her contract was terminated.
rikyrah
Ryan: Trump Mass Deportation Plan Not The ‘Right Thing To Do’ (VIDEO)
By CAITLIN MACNEAL
Published JULY 13, 2016, 8:20 AM EDT
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Tuesday night said that he disagreed with Donald Trump’s proposal to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
“I don’t think rounding up 11 million people A, is the right thing to do, B, would work,” Ryan said during a CNN town hall. “And I don’t think you’d like to see what we’d have to do to the country to do that.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Trump just cannot let someone challenge him without going on the attack against him or her. So presidential! Exactly what this country needs.
germy
@Patricia Kayden:
And horrifyingly, he’ll appoint ambassadors even more bellicose and belligerent than he is.
germy
@Amir Khalid:
The ladies holding his hands seemed bemused. I didn’t watch his speech. Was it lucid?
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Wouldn’t that just be something. If after they have treated this first family so disrespectfully, the party of “family values” nominates two men with six wives between them, can we finally agree that their promotion of family values was just BS. Clearly their economic policies don’t value families. Would a Trump/Gingrich ticket be so blatantly anti family values that the media would finally say something about it? The other morning NPR did a fluff piece about what kind of first lady Melania would be and I wanted to cut the radio out of my car’s dash and throw it in the street.
Felonius Monk
@rikyrah: Would not surprise me if GOP House will try to impeach Justice Ginsburg.
Matt McIrvin
@sherparick:
It makes a twisted kind of sense if you view it through the lens of the paranoid style in American politics. Gun-rights advocates believe that there’s a massive conspiracy going on to lie and cheat and falsify facts in order to take away their guns; any science aimed at studying gun violence, to them, is prima facie going to be a sham orchestrated by the conspiracy and not reliable. Similarly with attempts to shut down climate research.
JPL
@germy: It was short and appropriate for the occasion. IMO, this was his best line, “Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions.”
Chyron HR
@QPAC:
That’s nice, dear. See you in 2020 when you’re humping the leg of the next loser to get stuck with the GOP nomination.
Matt
@Iowa Old Lady:
I’ve always assumed the Talibangelicals feared a loss in membership – lots less “Biblically-perfect” marriages (i.e., ones where you can count the number of times the couple has fucked by counting their kids) around if people don’t feel socially forced into a particular sort of relationship…
Betty Cracker
@JMG:
I don’t think it will be that close. Clinton has held a steady lead in polling averages despite: 1) having to engage in an ongoing primary fight while Trump sewed his nomination up many weeks ago, and 2) having a prominent news network, FBI director and national legislative body spending tens of millions of dollars and countless hours painting her as negligent at best and traitorous at worst on the Email-ghazi thing, and 3) having endured 25+ years of wingnut witch hunts.
It’s true that in the absence of those factors — and if so many sexist knobs didn’t vote or participate in polls — she’d probably be leading Trump by 20-plus points right now. But it’s important to remember that most people haven’t really started paying attention yet, and when they do, they’ll see a competent (if flawed) person with actual policy proposals vs. a toxic, embarrassing buffoon offering nothing except self-congratulations and hate.
I’m not saying Trump can’t win. I intend to do everything I can as a voter and member of my community to make sure he doesn’t and encourage others to do the same. But I like our chances.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I always thought Laura was something better than the rest of them (something I also thought about her MIL until I got a good look at Dumbya) until Coretta Scott King’s funeral, when she gave Joseph Lowery the dagger stare while her useless husband slouched in his seat like a sullen adolescent. It was the first time I saw the Bush in her.
MomSense
@Betty Cracker:
The unknown for me is whether or not Democrats will be able to vote because of new voting laws, purges of voting rolls, and the usual GOP fuckery. I think we have to run up the score big time to compensate for the tricks the GOP have been playing.
JosieJ (not Josie)
@Iowa Old Lady:
Because, to them, the essence of “religious freedom” seems to be the freedom for them to tell everyone else what to do.
As far as this alleged “dancing” GWB was doing, it looks more like swaying to me: something I am used to doing to certain hymns or songs. Now, granted, that exceptionally white-bread rendition of the BHotR wouldn’t be one of them, but the concept of the whole congregation getting into a hymn and swaying together holding hands is not unknown–and I’m Presbyterian! (Black Presbyterian, but still…) I think the reaction to him is a little overblown.
rikyrah
Roger L. Simon Gets Racism Backwards
The quest for power can open up old wounds.
by Martin Longman
July 12, 2016 2:22 PM
I think The Field Negro is actually a little too polite about Roger L. Simon’s essay blaming Democrats for the deterioration in race relations in this country during the Obama Era.
I just wonder if Mr. Simon is aware of the psychological projection involved in his conclusion.
It was certainly possible to treat President Obama the way that Morgan Freeman asked to be treated by 60 Minutes’ Mike Wallace, as a person rather than as a black person. But that’s not the way he was treated. From at least the time of the Beer Summit with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the right chose to attack the president on racial grounds. No white president would have felt compelled to produce their birth certificate just to quell the cacophony of nonsense he was encountering that threatened to drown out everything he wanted to prioritize.
Cat48
I missed the dagger look, but about 80% of the time she seemed pleasant enough. Michelle seems to get along with her well too, when she can fight off her husband. Heh
I noticed when the four of them were in Selma, George was constantly all touchy too.
It’s just strange. ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this makes my head spin in several different directions at once
He wants to make sure they’re classy, like a Trump hotel men’s room? He wants to make sure they’re hot enough to stand next to Melania? Or not too hot to do so? He wants to make sure they don’t have headaches every time they’re supposed to stand on a stage with Trump? that they don’t roll their eyes when they think he’s not looking (cause Trump is always looking, Trump sees everything, Trump has fantastic peripheral vision, the best!)?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cat48: I’ve always thought the daughters seemed (from a long and disengaged distance) better people than you’d expect Bushes to be
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Iowa Old Lady: That too. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: I share your optimism. Trump leading in a few polls in some key swing states is no cause for suicide on our side. Just means that we must work harder to get the message across that everyone that can MUST vote. Trump’s obnoxiousness helps our side but we cannot become complacent just because he is a buffoon.
Cat48
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They do seem rather normal.
Patricia Kayden
@Felonius Monk: Read on LGF that Republicans may even try to impeach Comey. Anyone who doesn’t toe their line is subjected to the threat of impeachment.
Shell
What I hate with all that political bullshit is the coyness. And the media plays right along with it. “Ooh, is he going to announce it tonight. Oh no, theres gonna be a huge rally on Friday and then hell make the might pronouncement. Or not…”
For Christ sake, just say it!
schrodinger's cat
@JMG: I can’t control what others do but I am going to do everything I can to make ensure a Democratic victory.
amk
god/wimmin save murka. stoopid men ain’t gonna.eric
@Patricia Kayden: we need to see the cross tabs on the latino vote. So far, whenever trump leads or closes in a poll, the Latino spread is too generous to him. So, let’s wait and see what the cross tabs say.
Ruckus
@Iowa Old Lady:
This is the crux of their ideals. Restricting others to some Stepford like life, women in their place, no mess, no fuss, everything arranged just so, war (somewhere else of course) to keep the plebes in place and kill off most of them, a wonderful world that is arranged just so, all the little boxes checked. And if you don’t fit in one of the boxes, they want you dead.
They want subservience, to the people who were the bully in Jr HS and have evolved not one minute beyond that.
ruemara
@liberal: Fuck off.
Prez O was not taking a selfie at Mandela’s memorial, his fellow heads of state were. It wasn’t a solemn occasion of mourning, it was a celebration of life type event. There were a lot of selfies and other pics taken at the last one I attended.
I read the live tweet of the RNC platform meeting. This won’t be a close election. Not if people stop coddling dumb friends & relations who sit there and say “Hillary is awful and I’m sure Trump & Republicans are just talk and not that bad”. If they insist, tell them why you won’t have such disingenuousness in your life.
amk
@liberal: ah, the loony left weighs in. Idjit.
Original Lee
@OzarkHillbilly: Science has shown that mosquitos prefer type O blood, so maybe you have a less tasty blood type.
gogol's wife
@Mustang Bobby:
You said it better than I could.
GregB
@Matt McIrvin:
Point taken, though there is a bit of a difference in mood between a memorial for an old man who died in his 90’s after a long and well regarded life as a world icon and a service for 5 relatively young public servants massacred in the line of duty.
But erring on the side of charity is the liberal thing to do. Part of me knows that George just can’t help himself.
Shell
Gah, couldn’t take more than 5 minutes of that last night. There was some chick from a right to life org. and she was practically weeping, talking about the Supreme court decision on Texas trying to restrict abortion availability. Of course she was lamenting the ‘disastrous’ decision on harming women’s health. And theres Ryan, nodding solemnly, full of such serious concern. Ugggh.
burnspbesq
@satby:
Unfortunately, you just described Santa Barbara, which has no economy to speak of and an obscenely expensive housing market.
Steeplejack
@scav:
Very windy today on the Tour de France. Lots of little crashes and mishaps. Beautiful country! (Carcassonne to Montpellier.)
maurinsky
My daughter had her babies yesterday afternoon, which has been such a beautiful diversion from all the horrors of the world of politics. She had 2 baby girls!
gogol's wife
@maurinsky:
Congratulations!
Let’s hope we give them a world worth living in.
CRUSH TRUMP
manyakitty
@maurinsky: Wonderful news! Through it all, life persists.
Emma
@Amir Khalid: I think he’s a dry drunk. I had a cousin like that. After years of heavy boozing, he quit, and he would have these little incidents where he would lose control.
SiubhanDuinne
@maurinsky:
What lovely news! Congratulations to everyone involved!
Emma
@maurinsky: Mazel tov! Felicidades! Congratulations!
amk
gopolitico is all about how deadbeat donnie is ‘closing the gap in national polls’.
Cat48
@maurinsky: That’s wonderful, congratulations to all involved.
OzarkHillbilly
@Original Lee: A neg. That could be it.
Formerly disgruntled Clinton supporter
@p.a.: It can be two things!
OzarkHillbilly
@maurinsky: Congrats! to you and the proud Mama and Papa and most especially to the 2 beautiful daughters. They have a lifetime of joyful torture lined up for their father.
NorthLeft12
@Iowa Old Lady: The idea of same sex marriage offends them. Period. Full stop.
There really is no reasoning with them on it. They prefer all that “ickyness” to be stuck away behind closed doors….the way it used to be.
I had some [former] friends who could not get over that, despite any discussion we would have that it effects them not a whit and is actually a positive for society at large. Completely irrational.
Schlemazel Khan
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thank you, we don’t quote Paint Your Wagon enough around here!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Eh, Jorge Boosh. He was fine. Dull and uninspiring, but VERY short speech, which makes up for a multitude of sins. This line was the winner. Not something he came up with, I’m sure, but it was really good:
“Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions.”
Everybody could and should take a cue from that.
Obama’s could and probably should have been a lot shorter, but damn, a real gut-check of a speech. I would not, personally, have given that speech at a police funeral and expect to make it out alive, but he pulled it off. Probably the only guy on the planet who could. And maybe it’s me just picking up on the internal state of the speaker, but Obama’s speech somehow still seemed hopeful. In spite of everything, he’s still hopeful. I wouldn’t be.
Bush’s just was depressing. I’d forgotten just how depressed and sad I’d feel every time I heard the guy on a video or the radio, and I realize long after the fact that it’s not because of the politics….he’s just deeply depressed. I think his life in many ways has been very, very sad, in spite of the “being very rich and having been president” part. I don’t think he’s enjoyed a minute of it.
Iowa Old Lady
@maurinsky: Oh my. Congratulations to her.
trollhattan
@maurinsky:
Yay, and congratulations!
Frankensteinbeck
@burnspbesq:
Santa Barbara is right near the shore. If you’re a few miles from the shore, Southern California is like that in general. When I moved back to LA, I made sure to get a place as far West as I could afford.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just make sure she always has a driver.
Amir Khalid
@maurinsky:
Congratulations to the new mother and her girls, and to all in the family.
Aleta
Last night I heard Pence or whoever preceded him say that electing Trump is “a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Defeating him is also.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel Khan:
sherparick
It is kind of interesting how for years the MSM complained about a “lack of conversation on race,” and now that Trump has triggered one they are turning themselves into pretzels to avoid the truth about Mr. Trump, his followers, and the Republican Party (or rather the Neo-Confederate Party) and the way white resentment has made them nuts.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/7/13/1547829/–Trump-is-shorthand-for-white-supremecy
satby
@Humdog: Sounds perfect, but you’re in California and you get lots of rain? Does not compute!
Edited to add: oh northern California, makes sense now.
trollhattan
@Shell:
Having been on his reality show Donald naturally thinks he “knows” show business. He imagines this is how you build up genuine interest. “Leave them wanting more.” The counterfactual is he’s perfected being annoying as fuck.
Miss Bianca
@JosieJ (not Josie): yeah, for some reason, I’m just not as fussed about it as other folks seem to be. I noticed it, but only in the context of “oh, huh…” rather than “OMG!!”
Feathers
@gvg: The other thing about the Paula Jones case is that it was an entirely new and novel interpretation of the law. The statute of limitations had run out on the normal way to adjudicate these kinds of situations, so her lawyers argued she should be allowed to sue under a different law, not designed for this situation. They counted on everyone thinking “the president shouldn’t be above the law” and going along with it, and that folks wouldn’t realize that “the president shouldn’t be above settled law” is probably a better way of thinking about it.
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
I haven’t watched the service so don’t know the context, but taken in isolation he looks like a special needs adult at a public event. “Now remember everybody, to never let go of George’s hand.”
Imagine if he’d been the warmup for President “who let the dogs out”?
Ruviana
@MomSense: This among so so many of the reasons I turned NPR off in 2012 and never turned it on again.
Major Major Major Major
@satby: Humboldt county is in a temperate rain forest.
trollhattan
@Humdog:
100 miles to Costco, though. :-)
Dang purdy up there.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: Fair enough. He did look a bit…shall we say…out of it compared to the rest of the VIP entourage.
Emma
@Miss Bianca: As I mentioned upthread, he reminded me of a cousin who after years of heavy boozing had stopped cold-turkey. When he started to move and the “women in the family” kind of corralled him, it was almost a flashback. I feel sorry for Laura if that’s so. Caring for dry drunks is a 24/7 job.
SFAW
Holy shit, what an asshole. Bush’s song-and-dance was a reasonably clear indication (to me) that he’s no longer a “dry drunk” — not that I believe he ever was.
What was especially poignant was seeing the choir member behind him, who seemed to be wiping away a tear or two.
aimai
@Emma: I’m betting this is correct.
aimai
@SFAW: There was a white police officer behind the Dallas Police Chief who began having trouble not bursting into tears a few seconds into the recitation of the Stevie Wonder song. I spent the entire time watching him. He was so deeply, deeply, moved and then restored by the Police Chief’s words. It was truly astounding to watch. It made me understand how important a great, charismatic, leader is in times of crisis. It made me hopeful for Dallas going forward.
dr. luba
@Baud:
I wouldn’t be so sure. I am beginning to suspect that Trump and that thing on his head are some sort of human-animal/alien hybrid.
Humdog
@trollhattan: hey, humboldt isn’t that backwards! We have a Costco! A brewery for every 10k people, lots of coastline and forest to explore, plenty of wierdos to fit in with, even a university for culture. But 7 hour drive to Portland or San Francisco through winding redwood highways. I think of it as my moat!
Origuy
Magna Carta is only about 3600 words. In Latin, of course, which is more compact than English. Still, it fits on one large sheet of parchment.
Maybe if they had to write the Republican platform on parchment, by hand, they would make it shorter. Writing it in Latin would be out of the question, though.
gex
@Iowa Old Lady: Their preachers have told them God will punish the United States if we let gays live their lives like other citizens.
OzarkHillbilly
@Origuy:
THIS IS AMERICA!!! ENGLISH DAMMIT!!!
Major Major Major Major
@Humdog:
So, one brewery. ?
I used to hang out in Eureka/Arcata. I used to see it being a good fit for me, if I were a slightly different person. But I was single at the time, and there’s just not a whole lot of gay boys up there, especially when compared to SF.
Miss Bianca
@Humdog: You make it sound very appealing…how far from the coast are you?
NotMax
@Origuy
Perhaps not. Can hear the conversation now.
“Latin? Why do you want to write it in Latin?”
“Hispanic outreach, dummy. They’re from Latin America, aren’t they?”
Humdog
@Miss Bianca: I can hear the sea lions at night and the waves when it is stormy. Maybe half a mile? I’m outside a tiny fishing village of 400 people but the towns nearby have about 100-120k people. And Major *4, many if not most of my friends are gay or lesbian. Can’t tell you about the singles scene, however. I hang out with my dogs and hubby on my 6 acres of redwoods so my social scene is primarily the raccoons, deer and bears, apart from my husband.
Rand Careaga
@Barb2: We find that the “electronic fly swatter” — we call it “the tennis racquet of death” in my household — will kill flies when the batteries are fresh, but otherwise just stuns ’em, which still permits the coup de grâce to be administered via conventional means. Hit a mosquito, though, and the sucker will be reduced to its constituent quarks. Very satisfying.
Major Major Major Major
@Humdog: Gay boys in their 20s. The scene at that age up there is distinctly Sapphic.
Monala
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I have long had this theory about GWB. When he said that the worst moment of his presidency was when Kanye West said, “He doesn’t care about black people,” I think that’s because W knows he’s a f*ck-up. He’s been a f*ck-up in pretty much every endeavor in life, including his presidency. But I think he always thought that one thing he got right was not indulging in (as much?) racism. So he had high-ranking cabinet members who were black, made sure to always make the point that the war on terror wasn’t a war on Islam, etc. Then Kanye comes along and says that even the one area W thought he got right, he got wrong. No wonder that was such a blow to his ego.
bemused
Oh Lord, Bush dancing. What the hell. Surreal to see that dimwit in action again. Brings back far too many head smacking memories.
bemused
@Hildebrand:
I’m wondering too but bet there were a lot of people embarrassed for Bush and he is just clueless.
Mnemosyne
@JMG:
White men already voted in droves for the Republican in 2008 and 2012. 62 percent of white men voted for Mitt Romney. Didn’t help.
As Betty and others have mentioned, the trick this year is to make sure that non-white, non-male voters are allowed to cast a ballot.
Mnemosyne
@maurinsky:
Congratulations, grandma! My boss has twin boys and finds them simultaneously fascinating and exhausting.
bemused
@QPAC:
And then he went off script and tried to get down.
tybee
@OzarkHillbilly:
damn. me too but the skeeters love me.
bemused
@sherparick:
The Guardian just did a big piece collecting US gun statistics.
Soylent Green
@Emma: For all we know, Dubya could be drinking again, and why shouldn’t he? He’s retired, happy to do nothing more with his time than paint, ride his mountain bike, etc. He may be the least involved in the public sphere ex-prez ever.
Villago Delenda Est
These people are not sane.
bemused
@liberal:
I’ve got relatives, a couple, that quit drinking after decades of boozing. I think their behavior is even worse sober than plastered. Instead of stupid and tedious, they are now mean, nasty and delusional. Just glad they are not immediate family members and can avoid them completely.
Shana
@Hildebrand: To her credit, Laura seemed to be trying to hold her arm very steady in order to get GW to stop swaying back and forth. And was looking at him much of the time trying to catch his eye to visually tell him to cut it out.
Steve in the ATL
@Cat48:
(1) Texas is not the South; and
(2) W is a Methodist. The fundamental tenet of their religion is not feeling things. That’s why their churches are so plain.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for the Dolly Parton quote. I had read about it. Whoever she is voting for is a side point. She is a smart show biz veteran who deftly deflected a political question that she did not want (or need) to answer.
The Lodger
@Origuy: Ego habera meam, coitus tu. Not long at all, and sums up the GOP pretty thoroughly.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: One side wins with stupid people & therefore tries to make more of them.
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not a very high bar there…
Paul in KY
@CONGRATULATIONS!: This quote: ‘“Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions.” does make a very good point.
Paul in KY
@Monala: Interesting thought. Could be.
Paul in KY
@Steve in the ATL: Methodists (I was raised one) are generally restrained & genteel.
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: There are a lot of right wing dingbats who go to her park & spend lots of money at it. For her saying I’m sure Hillary would be a fine one, is about as declarative a sentence as you’ll hear her utter.
rikyrah
@maurinsky:
Congratulations!!
Double pinkness :)
liberal
@OzarkHillbilly: Please do show me facts showing that immigration at the lower end of the wage scale increases per capita gdp over the long run.
liberal
@OzarkHillbilly: first order simple partial equilibrium models are often pretty reasonable.
If you let in a huge number of people that are going to labor at a low wage, then the onus of showing that wages won’t be depressed (at the lower end of the scale) is on immigration advocates.
liberal
@Betty Cracker:
Seems unlikely. There seems to be a floor of about 45% IIRC of complete f*cking morons who will vote Republican in any presidential election. (Maybe the numbers are changing with changing demographics, slowly.) I could see it going down a bit with Trump, but there’s no way it’d ever be 40-60. They could nominate Cthulhu himself, and as long as he came out against the blahs and the browns, he’d get 40+%.
patroclus
The problem with the W. clip above is that it’s only 31 seconds – Bush was yukking it up for far longer than just that clip. A little joy might have been refreshing – it was him that first grabbed everyone’s hands and led the rest to hold hands – that brought a nice round of applause from the crowd. But the applause just seemed to set him off into wildly inappropriate behavior that wouldn’t stop until the song ended. And the choir had evidently prepared a very moving arrangement of the Battle Hymn of the Republic that was just ruined by his shtick. I said this yesterday – it was just appallingly inappropriate and brought back all sorts of bad memories of him saying and doing wildly inappropriate stuff. At least this one was minor, but “Bring it on!” and “Mission Accomplished” and all his smirks and stupid nicknames and that video of him not finding WMD’s under his desk and that terrible speech in New Orleans after Katrina and “War President” smirk and the Chinese door incident were far more serious. Blech!
grandpa john
@eric: most media assholes have no idea of what crosstabs are and why they are important
to evaluating the validity of a poll . The only polls significant to them are the ones showing horserace