Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Consistently wrong since 2002

After roe, women are no longer free.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The words do not have to be perfect.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / RNC Open Thread

Reader Interactions

340Comments

  7. 7.

    Soylent Green

    Well, I thought I would watch this Republican convention after skipping the last two, but now I think I’d like to wash my eyes with paint stripper.

  9. 9.

    gf120581

    Methinks Trump is going to get legal papers served on him from Queen soon.

    Wouldn’t be a campaign season if we didn’t have Republican candidates getting in trouble for playing music without permission.

  10. 10.

    WarMunchkin

    This has been a mortifying experience. A bunch of fourth graders are one bad day from the Presidency (no disrespect to fourth graders, that was unfair)

  12. 12.

    David Hunt

    Well, people like Donald Trump occasionally make me ashamed of being white, but I’m afraid that I’m not very brave. I think I’d rather reap the benefits of white privilege while working to unfairly wipe it out for future generations.

  13. 13.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Being white is something one has no control over. Being an asshole racist is another matter.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    It’s hilarious watching the current speaker trying to start a USA USA chant and getting crickets back. Repeatedly. He’s like Giuliani without the charisma.

  16. 16.

    schrodinger's cat

    Europe (and its extensions in the new world) dominated the world for the last 2 centuries or so because they overtook the dominant civilizations of the day (China, India etc) in science. Something that is anathema to the GOP.

  17. 17.

    jamesjhare

    I know lots of white people who aren’t stupid. The problem is stupid, not whiteness.

  18. 18.

    donnah

    Ugh, just joined the live coverage and am nauseated by the commenters here on NBC. They all thought Trump’s wife gave a moving and touching speech and Giuliani was showing Trump’s strengths and his loyalty to Trump. Blech.

    It was pretty sickening until Tom Brokaw gave his two cents worth and a reality check. It made the rest of the commentators look foolish as they backtracked to say that Trump had some problems and the Convention was off to a rough start, after going on about how Trump was making positive progress.

    It’s disgusting.

  19. 19.

    LAO

    Last week, I was picking up dinner in a Vietnamese sandwich shop in my neighborhood and they had the tv on CNN, which was discussing Trump. I made some disparaging comment about him and one of the Vietnamese women was like, “you’re white, what’s your problem with Trump? He’s one of you.” I felt flooded with shame and denied any affinity with Trump. I know the second I walked out they laughed at me. Rightly so, BTW.

    I was gob smacked by the experience.

  20. 20.

    Regine Touchon

    I had a weekend with friends, white friends, and we had same discussion and was gobsmacked when the majority, 3 out of 5 of us, are on Steve King’s side. My husband and I were in the minority. So down here in Alabama the arc of justice is a long way away.

  26. 26.

    mike in dc

    Trump is losing with white college graduates. His core strength is non-college-educated white males. I assume his advantage with over-50 non-college-educated white males is fairly overwhelming.

  27. 27.

    Trentrunner

    Good news is that NOTHING tonight appealed to anyone outside the Trump/GOP super-faithful.

    Tonight’s attempts at “outreach” (find crazy dark people to scream “Blue Lives Matter!”) utterly failed, and everything else is appalling to anyone not already convinced.

    Let’s hope they keep it up for the next three days.

  29. 29.

    FlyingToaster

    @LAO: I get that occasionally; I just reply “Republicans hate me, my family, and everything I believe in.” Of course, I’m some uppity Jewish woman, ya know. With an atheist husband and daughter.

    Fuck the GOP. I refuse to watch it, and I thank those of you who can stomach it from the bottom of my heart.
    ***
    Oh, and John, you didn’t pick the color of your skin any more than the rest of us. But you behave infinitely better than those rat bastards.

  32. 32.

    max

    I wish I wasn’t white.

    I wish I was fucking French.

    max
    [‘Then I wouldn’t live here.’]

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    @Trentrunner:

    Let’s hope they keep it up for the next three days.

    Tomorrow’s program is apparently going to focus on Bill Clinton’s wang.

  38. 38.

    max

    @mike in dc: His core strength is non-college-educated white males. I assume his advantage with over-50 non-college-educated white males is fairly overwhelming.

    ME NOT FIFTY! ME NOT ENTIRELY HONKY! ME NOT COLLEGE UNEDUCATED! ME NOT VOTE FOR RACIST CON-ARTIST!

    max
    [‘ME VOTE FOR WIFE OF EX-DIXIECRAT. SHE NICE LADY.’]

  39. 39.

    Renie

    I must live in a sheltered world even though I’m in a red area of NYS. I can’t believe the amount of pure hate and fear that was shown tonight. I am very lucky I don’t come across people like this in my daily life. I was brought up and bring my kids up with the belief of ‘live and let live’. I find these politicians who exploit the fears of people to their own advantage to be repulsive. In all honesty my own life wouldn’t really be affected much by a Trump presidency since I’m white and in an upper middle class economic group. But since I care about others and not just myself, it is revolting to me that too many Americans are like the people we saw tonite. They are all IGMFU Republicans. Trump needs to lose in a massive Hillary landslide so we never see these types of people again. I can’t even describe how offensive this $hitshow was tonite.

  40. 40.

    sukabi

    @dmsilev: oh good, then a thorough investigation of trumps past sexual exploits (including the alleged rape of a 13 yo girl) is fair game.

  46. 46.

    mike in dc

    To elaborate, the core base of the GOP is : non-college educated white males; their wives; white males over 50; their wives; Cuban-Americans over 50. That’s it. There are members of those groups who don’t vote R, but in the aggregate, that’s where the GOP gets most of their votes from.

  48. 48.

    Urza

    The early day problems was actually fun to watch, but soon as it hit primetime I had to turn that crap off. Any time republicans are calling other republicans Brownshirts and talking about them being fascists is a good day.

  52. 52.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @max: Arguments to the contrary? Other than your lifted eyebrow? You are equating Clinton with Strom Thurman. Support it.

  53. 53.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    @Trentrunner: the best thing is if anyone was curious and clued in on the very first night, they saw foaming at the mouth and screaming maniacs, one after the other, yelling crooked Hillary from the bleachers and calling for her to be thrown in jail.

    This is scary, but I’m very glad they led with this so no one is confused about just what they are.

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: Don’t forget that you’re technically not actually white because of conflation of religion with ethnicity. I’m sure Congressman King hasn’t forgotten.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    Wide shots of the audience a tacit demonstration that for a vast majority of people, cowboy hats do not work as a fashion accessory.

  56. 56.

    sukabi

    @max:not having listened to ANY of the speeches tonight, I’d wager that Melania’s speech may have been light, but was probably the most coherent one of the evening, even with the rickrolling…

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodinger’s cat: Industrial strength genocide/ethnocide? Yes. Genocide/ethnocide in general? No. Lots of others have also decided that was an acceptable solution to their problems. They just didn’t have the capacity and capability to do it on a grand scale.

  65. 65.

    Rommie

    I’m just very glad the GOP convention is first up. It should make next week the starkest contrast possible.

  66. 66.

    Mothra

    Southerners can get obsessed with “pride” over Civil War ancestry.

    So irrational.

    Whoever our ancestors, we didn’t pick them. There’s no reason for pride – and blessedly no reason for shame either.

    At most it’s a curiosity.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TaMara (HFG): I have a friend who is blonde in all senses of the world all the way down to her RNA! In the dictionary next to the part of the definition of blonde, where blonde is used as a euphemism, there is a picture of her. We call her Blondezilla!

  70. 70.

    hovercraft

    @mike in dc:
    College educated whites are also part of the base.
    From bloomberg

    Among all college-educated likely voters, including those with post-graduate degrees, Clinton leads 54 percent to 32 percent, a much bigger margin than President Barack Obama’s 2-point advantage with a group that represented 47 percent of the electorate in 2012. Among voters with just a college degree and no post-graduate degree, another subgroup Romney won in 2012, Clinton is ahead 48 percent to 37 percent.
    The findings suggest Trump is struggling to even rebuild the losing coalition Romney assembled, although other polls show the presumptive 2016 Republican nominee doing better among white voters without college degrees than Romney did. Since 1952, no Democratic presidential candidate has won college-educated whites, according to American National Election Studies data and exit polls reported by the Atlantic.

  72. 72.

    Mary G

    Me too, sometimes. One of my housemates came home Friday night. He had met his wife for dinner and because she was off to her third 4-hour shift she asked him to bring some stuff home. He was rearranging his truck and had a sledgehammer in his hand when a woman who had driven past him made a U-turn and drove back to tell him to go back to Mexico.

    He is from Guatemala. He said he wanted to tell her that and show her his green card, but he thought she might shoot him or call the cops to do it, so he bailed. And this is in dark blue California.

    I apologized for white people. This is Trump’s effect damaging our society. People who were bigoted all along didn’t say things out loud, because it was socially unacceptable. Now that political correctness is a bad thing according to Trump, they feel free to speak hatefully. Even if Hillary beats him, the genre’s not going back in the bottle easily.

  73. 73.

    maeve

    @TaMara (HFG):

    mom just did the Ancestry.com DNA test. I’m really hoping for some good news here … maybe we aren’t as white as we look. Sigh.

    By the one drop rule I’m black – but not by the 1/64 or the paper bag test. Ancestor in 17th century Connecticut (freed slave in a particular household – DNA (by others searching gthe family tree) has since shown the head of the household was probably his father). My Mom did the geneology – she was thrilled by the interesting stories.

  76. 76.

    Oldgold

    Joni drives a truck in Kuwait and thinks she has special standing. This is ridiculous.

    Beyond that, the substance and delivery of this speech is pitiful.

  80. 80.

    hovercraft

    @sukabi:
    They wisely kept her speech as a positive one, the only one tonight. You want the first lady to be the highlight of the night not another attack dog. And she was.

  81. 81.

    Jeffro

    @hovercraft: Love it…people need to get the word out that Trump is losing (i.e., is a LOS-ER) with every GOP voter group (except non-degree whites) even compared to Romney. Romney, who lost 51-48% and by 100 EVs.

    I’ll take it. Throw all your crazy out there, Donald, we’ll be there with an actual message, policies, and willingness to show up for work once this train wreck you call a convention wraps up.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    Wow. Audience about 90% thinned out.

    Two for one special at local bars must be ending soon.

  86. 86.

    Jeffro

    @GregB: how is she not lighting this crowd up? I thought these were her people?!?

    Seriously, I’m hoping that Ernst and Cotton learn nothing from this whole debacle…other GOPers drive me nuts but these two goofs deserve to have their office stripped from them, just out of their sheer ignorance, meanness, and did I mention ignorance?

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev: Anyone else other than me think Trump is taking the concept of a campaign as a dick measuring contest just a wee bit to far?

  91. 91.

    patroclus

    My brother did a DNA test and it turns out that I’m “probably” 1/1028th Jewish. At first, my Jewish friends and co-workers were interested, but once I started mangling Yiddish words all the time and singing “Hava nagila” and “Shalom shalom, you’ll find the word” and going on and on about “my people” they quickly got tired of it.

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Know a blond, blue-eyed someone here who got a full scholarship to college and grad school because he met qualifications of being Native Hawaiian.

  94. 94.

    pseudonymous in nc

    ‘The Paranoid Style in American Politics: The Stage Show!’ running for four nights in Cleveland, then touring the nation till November.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Aaron Blake ‏@ AaronBlake 8m8 minutes ago
    Joni Ernst: “Terrorists from ISIS are in every one of our 50 states.”

    these fucking people…

  99. 99.

    LAO

    @Omnes Omnibus: one of my grandmother’s was as blonde and blue eyed as her German heritage would suggest, except for that whole Jewish thing. And I have two totally aryan looking niece and nephew. We joke that they can pass for white during The Trump administration.

  100. 100.

    dww44

    @mike in dc: Where I am in the Red Red South, the non-educated white male population does not run for local and state offices and win them overwhelmingly, although they do vote GOP. The real power brokers are white male college graduates and their wives who are in lock step with them.

  103. 103.

    GregB

    Whenever Tom Cotton is mentioned it should be linked with this Three Stooges clip.

    Cotton

  104. 104.

    Elie

    @Regine Touchon:

    Just out of curiosity, what do you do with that experience? Its one thing when your friends don’t share your love of baseball, but what if they are racists? (Not trying to be an asshole — I just don’t know what I would do (though I am black so less likely to hear it from whites. I have never heard my black friends be racist against whites, but I admit, I may just not have heard them. ) sigh…

  106. 106.

    cmorenc

    @Trentrunner:

    Good news is that NOTHING tonight appealed to anyone outside the Trump/GOP super-faithful.

    Oh, I think Melania turned a few heads, but probably changed vanishingly few votes.

  109. 109.

    MobiusKlein

    Watching the RNC band, I swear one of them was a SNL regular from ’90s crew that always looked coked up. Angular jaw guy.
    Am I alone?

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodinger’s cat: The biblical/during the Exodus Israelite war of ritual purity was essentially a form of ethnocide. Certain types of inter-ethnic group conflict on all continents would also be considered the same thing. It wasn’t until the tech caught up to the aspiration that allowed it to go from smaller scale to all out genocide.

  113. 113.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman: Just wait until Thursday night. His speech will consist of him walking up to the podium, unzipping his trousers, and whipping it out.

    Metaphorically, we hope. But very possibly literally.

  115. 115.

    bupalos

    @Renie: I think you found the word I was looking for. Offensive. I can’t remember the last time I actually felt offended by something I saw on TV. Or turned it off out of genuine fear/revulsion. Rudy’s speech was honestly frightening. It actually sounds like these guys are trying to foment civil war, like they’ve counted numbers and weapons, and are like “yup, lets get this thing on.”

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    @trollhattan

    “Golly gee whillikers, we sure as shootin’ don’t got nuthin’ like this at home. What’s the name of this here place again? The Ramrod?”

  121. 121.

    hovercraft

    @trollhattan:
    Nah she’s used that gag before, tonight she was flanked by veterans on the stage. They are all being failed by Obama and Clinton.

  122. 122.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: I know a bunch. If you remember the movie Bull Durham, the Ybor City store owner that Teller plays is a nasty caricature of the grandfather of one of them. Went to elementary and middle school with him. My paternal grandmother was strawberry blonde. But we’re pretty sure her family had gotten into Russia through Mongolia. They went East and then North. She looked like one of the blonde haired, green eyed people that live on the Russian side of the steppes. I look Asian enough that when in China town in NY I get asked where my grandparent is from by the shopkeepers.

  130. 130.

    FlyingToaster

    @rikyrah: Thank goodness a lot of them have since died.

    And I’m not joking. One of the major problems that the GOP is facing is that their base is dying off, and they’re not attracting the next subset. So at this point, you can start skewing the “60% of whites over 50” to “60% of whites over 55”.

    If we can just convert this to local races, the country could look a lot more like the Massachusetts legislature :)

  131. 131.

    MCA1

    @Mike J: Calling DougJ – that would have been a perfect title for this thread, or Giuliani’s shout, er, “speech.”

    It’s like the whole night was choreographed by f’ing Darth Vader. “Give in to the Dark Side. Your emotions will set you free!” F’ing A, I mean it must feel good for those scared little people to just vent it in the open like that, but man, the takeover of the GOP is complete, no? Bob Dole, if he’s still lucent, must have been crying on the inside.

  132. 132.

    sinnedbackwards

    @Omnes Omnibus: I tell people when a conversation turns to skin color that my ancestors spent thousands of years freezing their butts off in northern Europe just so I could have the privileged skin shade today. Sometimes makes them think.

    Three of my four grandparents go back to 1620, 1628, and the 1640’s in North America (the fourth was a Johannes-come-lately in 1848). I’m one of those folks who identify as Human when asked about race.

    Donald Drumpf is a parvenu nouveau-not-so-riche poseur and REAL semi-EuroAmericans want nothing to do with him except to tan his hide in November.

    Speaking of Steve King, isn’t it cool we stole the idea of zero?

  133. 133.

    hovercraft

    @dmsilev:
    You know if he actually had something worth showing off, I would not put it past him. But given those short fingers, we’re safe.

  134. 134.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: Most likely Lisa Ann again. In 2012 she came to Tampa to reprise her parody of Sarah Paylin at the strip clubs during the RNC.
    http://www.cltampa.com/news-views/sex-love/article/20750002/nailin-paylin-star-lisa-ann-to-perform-in-tampa-during-the-rnc

    It was a fun phone conversation explaining to my Mom that yes Sarah Palin would be in Tampa for the RNC, but no she was not there to strip. She had caught the tail end (if I can use that expression in this comment) of a news report about Lisa Ann bringing her act to town to take advantage of the crowds attending the RNC.

  135. 135.

    Elie

    @Mike J:

    True dat….

    Those of us with mixed ancestry in the Middle East, Africa and Asia (and central Europe along the former Silk Road), have very complex cellular antigens from complex heritages. This leads to real difficulty getting good organ donor matches and on occasion, blood typing adventures (there are many weird, rare antigens on blood).

  136. 136.

    JWR

    Just listened to Cornel West, along with Dr. Jill Stein, arguing for the annexation of BLM into the Green Party. (at least I think that was the point they were making.) Fairly vacuous interview, but seriously, does Cornel always sound as if he’s stoned?

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: My sort of significant other (don’t judge me) has been called an uber-Jew. Her brother was red-haired and blue-eyed. She is brown-eyed and curly brown haired. Assumptions are silly.

  139. 139.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Again: assuming that the Obama coalition holds up against vote suppression and creeping Trumpism — which means getting to work as soon as the DNC ends — it’s going to be pretty fucking hard to talk down the basest of the base from a civil war mentality. They’re already had lusty chants for the opposing nominee to be hauled off in chains, and you know how that’s going to be interpreted by the Trumpian fringe. The institutional GOP isn’t going to talk them down, because that’s a weapon they can rely upon for the next four years if HRC wins.

    There need to be… consequences for Trump and his cheerleaders. Not state sanctions, just a collective “what the fuck were we doing?” from the establishment right after all this is done.

  141. 141.

    trollhattan

    @JWR:
    Schtick only explains part of it, I think he’s been to the unhingery for at least a lookaround.

  145. 145.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Mary G: My family is the rainbow. Seriously, how many in my family can be as hardcore racist while looking over our Thanksgiving table, I’ll never understand. One day my cousin and I were walking down the street in LA when some old guy looks at my him and says, “go back to China” (my cousin is Japanese/American). It was in that moment when I understood something deeply I never understood before. The world has looked different ever since.

  146. 146.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    we’ll see how this shakes out

    Jarrett Hill ‏@ JarrettHill 29m29 minutes ago
    CORRECTION: Melania stole a whole graph from Michelle’s speech. #GOPConvention

    Trump only hired the best people, the smartest word guys, to write Melania’s talk.

  148. 148.

    Dadadadadadada

    By the power vested in me at birth by the whiteness of my skin, I hereby declare that Steve King and all his vile ilk are no longer to be termed “white people”.
    Caucasoids who exhibit a degree of racial awareness, sensitivity, sympathy, a sense of history, etc., are now the sole legitimate claimants to the title “white people”. The others, in reference to their Great Leader, are hereafter to be known as “orange people”. So say we all.

  149. 149.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: He called into O’Reilly, forcing FOX to cut away from live coverage of the program, just as the mother of one of the people killed at Benghazi was speaking. So no one watching FOX saw her make an emotionally, angry argument against Secretary Clinton. They are constantly stepping all over their own message.

  153. 153.

    Dadadadadadada

    @Adam L Silverman: Lisa Ann might see a drop in business, seeing as the real Palin couldn’t be bothered to show up in Cleveland.
    Seriously, Trump is in for an historic beatdown. When even Palin won’t be seen with you…

  154. 154.

    Kropadope

    @Adam L Silverman:

    So no one watching FOX saw her make an emotionally, angry argument against Secretary Clinton.

    I watched on CNN, caught the speech and can tell you that you missed “divorced from reality.”

  155. 155.

    Betty Cracker

    I switched to Great British Bake-Off streaming during Cotton’s speech. Found the earlier militaristic jingoism, anti-BLM rhetoric and Benghazi bloody shirt waving incredibly disturbing and exploitive. The only positive is that it is hard to imagine a non-wingnut tuning in and finding that angry psycho parade persuasive.

  157. 157.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kropadope: I saw a clip. As well as the two contractors pushing the debunked by seven GOP led Congressional committees stand down order. In the case of the former, grief leads people to do crazy things. In the latter I have issues with Marines who push known, documented falsehoods. That is not keeping your honor clean.

  158. 158.

    MazeDancer

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Melania stealing word for word from Michelle Obama is bizarre. Playing the video while reading FLOTUS speech is just insane.

    Why in the world would something like that happen? Absolutely crazy.

    Journalists on Twitter are discussing. We’ll see how big the story gets.

  159. 159.

    Mike J

    @Trentrunner: Wish I knew where the Michelle speech was from and we had video. I believe it’s possible, but I want a little more verification. Give us more to look it up.

  163. 163.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: I was wondering how soon we’ll see the ratings. I know a lot of people like(d) to watch Trump– I don’t understand it, but I know it– I don’t think a lot of people would leave the channel on for Melania, Chachi*, and the weird lady who says ISIS is in Alabama and Idaho

    * he has lost the right to ever be called Bob Loblaw again. (that was the name of a long ago banned troll and used to make posts disappear)

  164. 164.

    Kropadope

    @Betty Cracker:

    Found the earlier militaristic jingoism, anti-BLM rhetoric and Benghazi bloody shirt waving incredibly disturbing and exploitive.

    Well, tonight I was treated to the lovely spectacle of someone siding with BLM, saying the type of angry rhetoric he was hearing from Republicans and the media is responsible for violence against both black people and police officers, and saying he planned to vote for Trump. I told him to watch the Democrats next week and see what a different tune they’re playing.

  167. 167.

    hovercraft

    @Trentrunner:
    The TODAY show interview has already been taped, they did it with Matt Lauer on the plane when they touched down in Cleveland.

  170. 170.

    MCA1

    @Trentrunner: Get the everloving F out of here – seriously? I mean, nothing would shock me at this point, and clearly not a single person on the Drumpf campaign would have been knowledgeable enough to know there was plagiarism going on here. But g’damn.

  173. 173.

    NotMax

    @Trentrunner

    Interview has already been put in the can, was filmed aboard the Trump plane while it sat on the tarmac in Cleveland before her turn at the lectern.

  174. 174.

    Trentrunner

    Just from a purely pre-2016 campaign perspective, Melania’s plagiarism is a good thing for us.

    The ONLY positive non-scary thing about Night 1 was Melania’s anodyne but generally positive speech.

    Now the story will be that it was plagiarized, Donald will have to YOU’RE FIRED a speech writer, but it will certainly undercut one potential positive thing about him.

    LOL. LOL. These fuckers.

  176. 176.

    Trentrunner

    Also, our first hint should have been when Melania began by saying that she “was born a black girl on the south side of Chicago…”

  177. 177.

    Aleta

    I watched Giulliani with the sound off, my he was rabid, and began to remind me of Edgar Ray Killen. A brain parasite that’s grown to the same size and shape as a human.

  178. 178.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JWR: @MCA1: They probably told her and whoever was helping her she had to give a nominating convention speech like a future first lady. So someone googled “nominating convention speech like a future first lady” and instead of using it as a template, used it for content.

  179. 179.

    yet another jeff

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The thing is, I used to wear bread bags too…it was Texas, and it’s not like it snowed enough to justify snow boots for fast growing feet…

  180. 180.

    BruceFromOhio

    @LAO: I’m sorry you felt that. If similarly challenged, I plan to point at the teevee and make it clear that the man pictured (expecting it to be Herr Dumpster Fire) is a gaping rectum.

    One mind at a time, that’s how it works.

  183. 183.

    Trentrunner

    Btw, I do this for a living (teach college comp), and Melania’s plagiarism has the earmarks of the worst kind: A few words changed here and there to throw you (and Turnitin.com) off, but anyone playing/reading the two speeches side by side will now. In other words, demonstrating intent to deceive.

    Crooked Melania.

  190. 190.

    Dadadadadadada

    Since something like 30 people spoke tonight about the American lives lost in Benghazi, the alleged errors and alleged lies that led to that tragedy, the alleged coverups and lack of accountability after the fact (a ratio of roughly 7.5 per dead American)…
    Simple math dictates that at least 30,000 speakers must touch all the same bases with regard to the American lives lost in Iraq, the actual provable errors and known lies that led to that tragedy, the totally real coverups and lack of accountability, etc.
    I’d bet money that the word “Iraq” was not spoken by any GOPer tonight, and will not be on any other night of the convention, or at any other time unless some uncouth journalist absolutely forces the issue.

  192. 192.

    hovercraft

    @Trentrunner:
    So the coverage on the morning shows is going to focus on what?
    Melania plagiarism,
    Rudy is crazy,
    Hillary should be in jail,
    General shit show,
    What is the lead story?
    I vote for Melania.

  193. 193.

    Kropadope

    @Omnes Omnibus: I said I did that for a discrete finite period of time that has long since been over. You’ve been trolling me personally nonstop for a year (both before and after my little aberration). Get fucked.

  195. 195.

    Trentrunner

    On MSNBC: “There’s no university in America that wouldn’t rule this as plagiarism.” – Lawrence O’Donnell

  197. 197.

    Trentrunner

    MSNBC just edited both speeches together. Steve Schmidt: “This turns this night into a catastrophe.”

  199. 199.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Trentrunner: Steve Schmidt: “This turns this night into a catastrophe.”

    Huh, he sees more here than I do. I hope he’s right.

  201. 201.

    Mike J

    Chris Matthews saying it was obviously done to sabotage Trump.

    False flaggism goes mainstream. Jet fuel can’t melt Obama speeches.

  202. 202.

    Trentrunner

    Twitter is ON FIRE.

    On MSNBC: “Was this maybe deliberate?” O’Donnell, speculating because it’s the most obvious lift of all.

    I.e., deliberately sabotaging Melania

  203. 203.

    ruemara

    I don’t think white people fully understand how painful watching, hearing and experiencing this crap is. Between the convention and the abuse Leslie Jones has gone through this day, man. It ain’t a decent feeling. Don’t hate being white. Hate not having the ability to slap a fucker who deserves and makes sure you let the next person you hear saying or doing a bigoted thing know that you think he’s a fucker.

  205. 205.

    Vor

    @Dadadadadadada: no, there was a mention of Iraq in an earlier speech. The speaker blamed Obama and Hillary for abandoning Iraq. I assume they used their time machine to go back and force George W. Bush to sign the deal.

  207. 207.

    Trentrunner

    OMG, something is going on. Melania’s speech also contained this Rickroll:

    “He will never, ever give up. And, most importantly, he will never, ever let you down.”

    What. The. Fuck.

  208. 208.

    mike in dc

    I would like to downgrade my rating of this night politically from B-/C+ to “Shitshow”. I was grading on a curve to begin with.

  209. 209.

    BruceFromOhio

    @NotMax: There are many, many local clubs, eateries, bars, a first-run movie theater, pretty open public spaces within walking distance of “The Q” arena where much of the convention activity is planned. Hell, there’s even a casino across the street, and a couple of strip bars about a five-minute Uber/taxi ride away. On a dry, pleasant evening in mid-July Cleveland Ohio, there exists a full universe of better things to do than sit in an auditorium seat and listen to straight-up bullshit.

    Hell, they’re all Republicans, right? Partying without accountability on someone else’s nickel is the way, so let ’em party. The joint can handle the traffic.

  210. 210.

    Theron Ware

    Holy craptastic Batman, Melania Trumps speech was lifted from Michelle Obamas speech of ’08!

  211. 211.

    Trentrunner

    Yup, CNN is now on it.

    Btw, has anyone ever mentioned just how gorgeous Michelle Obama is, and what a great speaker?

  212. 212.

    MCA1

    I cannot believe I’m watching this happen in real time. This is one of the best 20 minutes of television watching of my lifetime. They are dumbfounded. Now on CNN. This will dominate the news cycle for the next two days, the party and the nominee will have to address plagiarism by his wife. Un.Be.Lievable.

    Chris Matthews asking if it was sabotage because it was so incredibly fucking brazen and stupid.

  214. 214.

    Adam L Silverman

    I have a theory about the Trump campaign even though I know its not provable. I think Manafort, who is now (technically) running things has spent so much time running things for dictators and tyrants that he has forgotten that in the US norms and processes actually matter. So the chaos we’re seeing around Manafort’s client and his operations, campaign, and convention, which would be officially ignored in the places that Manafort is used to working for the better part of the past twenty years because if it wasn’t, the dictator’s he works for would direct state terror (the direction of the power of the state, including the threat of and actual violence against groups and demographics within the state in order to create a state of fear to coerce political, economic, social, and economic activities) against whoever stepped out of line and reported what was actually going on. In short: Manafort thinks he’s still working for Viktor Yanukovych.

  217. 217.

    Mike J

    @Trentrunner: Trump speechwriters: were they in Colorado, Washington or breaking the law?

    Can you imagine the giggling in the room?

    Axe on CNN says, “plagiarism”. Cooper says writers did a disservice to Trump.

  219. 219.

    Lizzy L

    Any minute now Trey Gowdy will call for an investigation into how Hillary Clinton was able to time travel to insert a paragraph from Melania Trump’s 2016 speech into Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech.

  220. 220.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Vor: also, Nouriel Maliki, who wouldn’t grant US personnel legal immunity, and later cut off the funding that was keeping the Sunnis from turning on the central gov’t was installed by the Bush administration, in spite of ample warning signs that he was not a reliable ally. Not that I have any clue who a better candidate might have been, but Maliki was one of the many pieces of pottery Dubya left on the floor of that particular barn.

  221. 221.

    Kropadope

    @Theron Ware:

    Holy craptastic Batman, Melania Trumps speech was lifted from Michelle Obamas speech of ’08!

    Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and uncredited imitation the least honest.

  226. 226.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Trentrunner: Truth hurts. I got into a heated disagreement with colleagues during course prep at USAWC about the need to find a reading selection by anyone other than Zakaria because he was still suspended from his network gig and his op-ed gigs for the plagiarism. My argument wasn’t that the reading wasn’t accurate, or that this particular selection was plagiarized (it wasn’t), but that we’re trying to get a bunch of senior officers, most of whom hadn’t written anything longer than a one page point paper in decades, to take the research and writing protocols seriously and that assigning a plagiarist would send the wrong message. Can’t remember now what the actual outcome was.

    Also, the truth hurts.

  227. 227.

    Mike J

    “IN fairness, the speechwriter left out the part about how they met on the south side of Chicago.” – CNN dude

  228. 228.

    Kropadope

    Wait, they said on CNN that speechwriters were working on Melania’s speech for six weeks. How long does it take to copy and paste?

  230. 230.

    Betty Cracker

    Melania allegedly said she wrote the speech — there is film of her saying it. Why is she getting off the hook?

  231. 231.

    MCA1

    Chyron writers, WTF: “Similarities Noticed…” Fuck off. If we’re going to be treated to an entire bucket of spittle out of Rudy Giuliani’s mouth about the Rumplestiltskin of radical Islamic terrorism, I think we should expect to see the word “PLAGIARISM” on our screens.

  232. 232.

    Kropadope

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    I’m betting that if it was deliberate sabotage, it was done by Republicans.

    I’m still holding out for the possibility that Trump will tell the Republicans to stick their nomination where the sun don’t shine.

  233. 233.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike J: By whom? Does he think the President got his hands on the speech transcript loaded into the teleprompter, gave it to the First Lady, and sent her back to 2008 to give it to her earlier self so she could give a speech 8 years ago that would make it look like Melania Trump’s speech was plagiarized? Is he drunk on air again?

  235. 235.

    MCA1

    Best part: the plagiarized bit is about the value of hard work. Cannot make this stuff up.

  236. 236.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Vor: They held an AR-15 to the deserting coward’s head and forced him to sign the SOFA and pull the troops out. The bastards.

  237. 237.

    Cat48

    @GregB:

    Ernst was screaming up there bc Hillary hasn’t gotten rid of terrorists fast enough. I guess she hasn’t noticed Hillz left the StatenDept 4 years ago. Maybe she really meant Obama, but since he’s brown, he’s not capable or something? I can’t go from my nice president to TrumpPence. That will take several years off my life & I don’t have that many left.

  238. 238.

    NotMax

    Never noticed it before – Lawrence O’Donnell has elfin ears.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  240. 240.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @MCA1: Well, all that cutting and pasting very clearly required much of Melina’s mental focus.

    How the fuck did she ever expect to get away with this?

  247. 247.

    hovercraft

    @Lizzy L:
    Investigate Hillary and Michelle, find out how they managed to slip Michelle’s speech in there without Melania realizing it wasn’t the speech she wrote herself with very little help.

  248. 248.

    bemused

    What the hell happened with Melania speech? We finished watching a dvd and then CNN was talking about the speech being like Michelle’s. I thought it was cable news being stupid again and turned to msnbc and it was the same. Seriously? This really happened? And how?

    Could this campaign get more bizarre and whacked?

  252. 252.

    JWR

    @Betty Cracker:

    Why is she getting off the hook?

    I’m sure the excuse will be the excuse PBS threw out just after her speech: “She’s NEW at this!”

  253. 253.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Helen: Well, gosh, that’s about as unexpected as Mickey Mouse and Underdog coming down Broadway on Thanksgiving Day!

  255. 255.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JWR: Rinse Shortbus has been using “he’s new at this” as an excuse for Teh Donald for months now.

  256. 256.

    amk

    @Mike J: Talk about msm being in the tank for the derp. I tell ya, they will all be yelling VOTER FRAUD!!!, come nov 5th.

  257. 257.

    hovercraft

    According to Bob Costa the drump campaign is angry at the media for reacting to this the way they are. Why is the media making such a big deal of it.

  258. 258.

    Mike J

    @Betty Cracker:

    Melania allegedly said she wrote the speech — there is film of her saying it. Why is she getting off the hook?

    Film? Nobody uses film any more. It’s called a magazine, not a clip. NRA

  260. 260.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: Thanks. I’m not sure we can prove it, but every interview I’ve seen with him (Manafort), he just acts as if this stuff will be/should be/is going to be ignored and Trump will be allowed to do whatever it is he wants and no one will gainsay him or prevent it.

    Also, I think this speech plagiarism is actually the saving grace for the campaign on Day 1. All the focus is now going to be on this because it will allow the news media, especially the cable TV folks, to just ignore all the other insanity.

  261. 261.

    hovercraft

    And salt in the wound, a Michelle Obama speech of all speeches. Why her the ignominy.

  264. 264.

    bemused

    @Quinerly:

    Sweet Jesus, this is just insane. The GOP must be going out of their minds. However, it will be fun to hear how they try to pretend it’s just a much ado about nothing tomorrow.

  266. 266.

    MCA1

    Thank you, Joy Reid. To paraphrase: “C’mon – the media have hounded Michelle Obama to the ends of the Earth if this had happened in 2008, gtfooh with all this sympathy for Melania Trump.”

  269. 269.

    Lizzy L

    I seriously doubt that Melania Trump wrote any part of the speech that she delivered. Very few people in politics write their own speeches. President Obama — who is capable of writing his own speeches — has had several excellent professional speechwriters. It’s hard, time-consuming work.

    Whoever did write it is going to be looking for other work.

  270. 270.

    sukabi

    @hovercraft: that’s going to be a problem then, Drumpf can’t ban all the media, how else is he going to stretch his tiny war chest without all that FREE air time?

  271. 271.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JWR: She just read what was handed to her. She had no input at all into the wording. She had no idea it was plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008. There’s a mole from the Rafael Cruz camp in the Drumpf organization who set this up. Yeah, that’s the ticket! And Morgan Fairchild is my wife!

  272. 272.

    Quinerly

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Manifort is a piece of work. I’m angry that the media refuses to discuss his background. I really wonder if Trump did win and wanted Manifort with him in the WH, if Manifort could get security clearances.

  273. 273.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MCA1: I like the comment Joy Ann Reid just made on MSNBC referencing Avik Roy’s tweet that the subtext of the night, up until Melania’s speech, is that brown people are dangerous. That will now, because of the plagiarism issue, go right down the memory hole.

  277. 277.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bemused: The GOP must be going out of their minds.

    One of their featured speakers was an actor who was maybe B-list twenty years ago, who got up and called Obama a Muslim, another was an actor from the same old list who yesterday was tweeting a picture calling Hillary Clinton a c*nt. A sitting US Senator said we have ISIS cells in all fifty states (doesn’t that kinda demand some pretty quick and intense follow up?), and I haven’t even yet digested the things Flynn said. This oughta be the least of their problems.

    @Betty Cracker: What are the chances they try to brazen this out?

    I think Andrea Mitchell’s show is on in about twelve hours? I’ll bet you 10,000 Romney-bucks she’s passive-aggressively scolding whatever Dem might mention this, “Is it fair to pick on a candidate’s wife, who never thought she would…” This meme might be established on Morning Joe, though I gather title blusterer is kind of a weathervane when it comes to Trump.

  278. 278.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: If the principal, in this case the President, wanted him to have a clearance, he’d get a clearance. That’s how it works.

  280. 280.

    MCA1

    I also have to admit, I am loving how uncomfortable Brian Williams is talking about this. Giant elephant in the room.

  283. 283.

    John Weiss

    @gogol’s wife: Oh, good heavens! So you think that other species are more ‘nobile’? Give me a break. You need to be lookin’ around your self.

    There are no ‘nobile’ species.

    Good grief!

  285. 285.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Senator Ernst’s statement comes from Gaffney’s stuff. Specifically former DCI Woolsey. A decade ago he was featured in DVDs sent to politicians and law enforcement and other groups, a long with Gaffney and Gingrich and Brigitte Gabriel and others, claiming al Qaeda had sleepers in all 50 states. All they did was update the name to the scary group du jour.

  287. 287.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Adam L Silverman: yep. Everything is trolling 2016, and this feels like chum. I mean, it had a fucking Rickroll in it.

    The political press chases the plagiarism.
    “Biden did it!”
    Onwards. The basest of the base got to focus on death and apocalypse and scary brown people and hauling off HRC in chains.

  289. 289.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Do you guys think this is going to be the last fuck-up? I wouldn’t bet on it.

  290. 290.

    Quinerly

    Someone has mentioned Lawrence O’Donnell’s ears. Now I can’t stop looking at them. I think I’m on overload.

  291. 291.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Just a reminder, an act of plagiarism ended Handsome Joe’s 1988 run for President.

  293. 293.

    Adam L Silverman

    What in Deity’s name, anyone’s Deity, did Don Lemon do to his face and head?

  295. 295.

    MCA1

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, I guess that’s an unfortunate side effect. Instead of being known foreverafter as GOP Fear & Hate Fest ’16, it’ll go down as PlagiarismGate. At least we get the “OMG the incompetence is staggering” angle for a full news cycle, plus the delicious hurt fee fees of media types endlessly tut-tutting about what REALLY matters to them.

  297. 297.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Adam L Silverman:

    every interview I’ve seen with him (Manafort), he just acts as if this stuff will be/should be/is going to be ignored and Trump will be allowed to do whatever it is he wants and no one will gainsay him or prevent it.

    Manafort scares me. It’s not just having accounts with every dictator imaginable (and some unimaginable). It’s the hair. The man is 67. There’s a portrait in an attic somewhere that looks like Cthulu.

  299. 299.

    bemused

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I watched the convention until the two seals were on, then quit. I didn’t want to see the rest of them, including Giuliani knowing it would be a horror which I get the impression was as bad I expected.

  300. 300.

    sukabi

    @Kropadope: when you’re working with 3rd graders with learning disabilities it’s going to take a bit longer than usual.

    Eta, apologies to 3rd graders with and without learning disabilities, totally not fair to associate children with the a$$holes associated with trump and gop, who are ethically challenged, intellectually lazy fuckwits.

  301. 301.

    MisterForkbeard

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: To be fair, Melania isn’t running for President.

    But yeah, anyone with an ounce of shame would suck it up and fire a speechwriter. Anyone with the normal amount of shame would apologize profusely and THEN fire the speechwriter.

  302. 302.

    hovercraft

    @MCA1:
    Amen, notice how none of them disputed that Michelle would have been crucified, but then they still defended Melania. Oh and Joy said the first person to point out the hypocrisy was a conservative on twitter.

    Tom Nichols
    @RadioFreeTom

    Ask yourself if anyone would be giving a pass to Michelle Obama if she’d nicked a chunk of a Laura Bush speech. I’ll wait.

  304. 304.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: Yes she is. I’m waiting for her to turn to Tweety and say: “I’m going to try this again, I’m going to speak very slowly, and use very slow words…”. He either is incapable of getting it or doesn’t want to get it.

  307. 307.

    Adam L Silverman

    @celticdragonchick: How you doing? I saw that terrible news regarding the shooting in Indiana and thought of you (not that you were part of that, but you know…).

  308. 308.

    celticdragonchick

    @sukabi: I actually happen to work with learning disabled children. I wish people wouldn’t use them as an example to disparage adults who act badly.

  312. 312.

    mike in dc

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Tweety doesn’t want to believe that Melania cribbed the speech, nor does he want to agree that Michelle would be in for a world of shit under the same circumstances. He wants to advance this theory that a speechwriter sabotaged her. But the only two people associated with this speech so far are Melania and Paul Manafort. They can’t fire Melania. Do they fire Manafort halfway through the convention?

  313. 313.

    celticdragonchick

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Hey. :)

    WTF in Indiana? Did I miss something???

    I am safe and relatively sound here in Greensboro for the moment and nobody has made a threatening comment about transgendered wimminz bringin’ Obama’s doctrines to their school kids in awhile.

    Of course, we are on summer break, so there is that.

  314. 314.

    MisterForkbeard

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: You know, I think you might be right about that. I can’t remember what it was, though. It was pretty polite.

    In all honestly, firing a speechwriter would be Trump admitting his campaign fucked up, and I doubt he’ll do that. He’ll just insist this is the media unfairly crucifying and attacking his wife, which is so not cool and how as a Real Man he’s going to stand up for her.

    Republicans will probably love it.

  315. 315.

    Adam L Silverman

    @mike in dc: I think the real takeaway from Costa’s reporting is that his source is positioning Manafort to take the fall. I bet the source’s name begins with an L and ends with a ski.

  319. 319.

    Adam L Silverman

    @celticdragonchick: Its this:
    http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/07/indiana-trans-woman-shot-face-member-suspected-hate-group/

    http://www.courierpress.com/news/crime/evansville-shooting-suspect-identifies-with-alleged-hate-group-376f773c-362f-68d7-e053-0100007fe86a-386475291.html

    Since you hadn’t seen the news, and I originally saw it at Raw Story, but that was the first link that came up when I did a quick google search, I’m sorry to have to bring it to your attention as its not pleasant. Its on my list of things to write about on here this week as an example of what is clearly domestic, religiously motivated terrorism, but won’t be treated that way because of the people involved and where it happened.

  320. 320.

    Quinerly

    @mike in dc:
    So was Melania lying when she said in the interview that she wrote it with very LITTLE help? After all that’s what she said.

  321. 321.

    celticdragonchick

    @Kropadope:

    Thanks. I’m not trying to be a jerk… I work with EC kids mostly in Guilford County Schools and I really love my kids. They work hard even with all the shit that nature and society throws at them. We don’t need to add to the load.

  322. 322.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Adam L Silverman: Honestly, I think Trump is just going to use this an example of how the media is unfairly against him and use it to really get the republicans in line behind him. Because there’s only a few things they like more than being victims of the “liberal” media.

  328. 328.

    hovercraft

    @Quinerly:
    According to all the talkers it was a harmless lie that they allow all politicians to get away with, so it’s still not her fault.

  329. 329.

    celticdragonchick

    @Adam L Silverman:

    My God. I actually swore out loud when I read that.

    That kind of thing was why I took over a month off of teaching late last winter when things started getting real intense about “A transgender freak is teaching our children!” here.

    The district admin did not give me a hard time about it (taking time away) and they publicly supported me, although I could have used some better private communication.

    I was terrified that me or my spouse were going to be stalked and assaulted or shot. I was getting phone calls from the media and local GOP candidates were denouncing me.

    I spent a year up near the damned Korean DMZ with 5/17 CAV, pro mask on my side and a band new M60 to lug around and I never felt half as scared as I did last February.

  330. 330.

    Quinerly

    Hey, novel idea! Melania actually did write it (after all, she’s a successful businesswoman!!) Manafort thought it was great and made no changes. I’m not buying the sabotage theory.

  331. 331.

    mike in dc

    @Quinerly:

    Occam’s razor suggests that Melania, who attended less than a year at university, didn’t understand that plagiarism was detectable and put it in herself. The alternative is that a professional speech writer would have done it, which sounds ridiculous. I’m beginning to believe that Ms. Trump is the guilty party here.

  332. 332.

    Adam L Silverman

    @celticdragonchick: I read the comments in the other place you comment with a similar nym (pro-tip, if you need to nod off to sleep, reading the comments over there works really, really well), so I’m tracking. I wasn’t sure you’re the same person until you provided geographic info tonight, but was relatively sure. Partially why I stepped on the troll so hard – I had context and background to consider. Also, right thing to do.

    I think the real issue in Indiana is that 1) the attitude of the cops to the victim and 2) the fact that the symbolic deterrent of a hate crime up charge is unavailable because Indiana’s legislature and governor have decided they don’t need a hate crime statute.

  333. 333.

    MisterForkbeard

    @mike in dc: I’ve been told that many foreign universities also don’t have the same sort of opinion of plagiarism as we do here. Anecdotally, some U.S. professors have a problem with foreign students who plagiarize at the drop of a hat, because it’s not considered a big deal in their home country. That could also be the case here.

  334. 334.

    celticdragonchick

    @Adam L Silverman: I didn’t see the troll crushing action, but I deeply appreciate it.

    I know my writing style is somewhat distinctive so it isn’t really hard to figure me out elsewhere (If I had ever been tempted to plagiarize in college, that alone would have given me away. I tend towards over-long sentences)

    I also tend to be a bit…ahem…testy and condescending when I think I am dealing with somebody who does not know what they are talking about in science or history and I need to work on that. Neither attribute serves me well when I am making an academic argument.

    Again, though…thanks for having my back. Cav Out Front!

  335. 335.

    Adam L Silverman

    @celticdragonchick: No worries, we’re either all in it together or we’re not.

    As for the commenting, I don’t want to out (if I may use that term) anyone here for their activities somewhere else.

  337. 337.

    celticdragonchick

    @Adam L Silverman:

    CNN whitesplainin’?

    sigh.

    I’m out.

    Also wanted to say your coverage of the business in Turkey was the best anywhere I saw on the web. You contextualized Kemalism, the history of the military intervening and then showed us how this was not the same as previous coups and you made it understandable.

    Kudos.

  339. 339.

    MCA1

    @mike in dc: Totally agree. And no one on the barebones staff had the resources or savvy to run it through the various software that’s out there to check for such things. I wouldn’t be shocked if she didn’t even realize it was the FLOTUS’s speech in the first place.

    They’ll still probably find a sacrificial lamb, though. I mean, they can’t throw HER under the bus, right?

Comments are closed.