Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

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

Come on, man.

People are weird.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

The willow is too close to the house.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Everybody saw this coming.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Series of Isolated Incidents

A Series of Isolated Incidents

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This tweet from the NYT’s Maggie Haberman is truer than perhaps even she knows:

It’s not just the Golden Palace; the Trump GOP is also selective in its concerns about terrorism:

In case you can’t watch the video, I’ll sum up: Trump GOP Rep. Duffy is defending the Trump GOP ban on refugees from countries that haven’t produced citizens who have attacked the U.S. He’s scaremongering about attacks in Europe, and CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota is asking why that’s the big focus now when actual white supremacist violence is occurring in North America.

Duffy first claims that white supremacist violence like the mosque shooting in Canada are “one-offs.” Then he says “a lot of good” came out of the white supremacist attack on the Emmanuel Church in Charleston, citing the retirement of the Confederate flag from the state house. WTF? Camerota keeps trying to get him to admit that there’s an organized movement behind multiple incidents of white supremacist violence, including an online radicalization component, and Duffy keeps insisting that this is fundamentally different from “radical Islamic terrorism.”

Duffy even says if Camerota can identify a movement behind white supremacist violence (the Klan, Aryan Nation? the fucking slovenly “alt-right” goon in the Golden Palace?), he’ll join her in opposing it. Looks like the GOP’s Trump is about to make (even more of) a liar out of Duffy; via Reuters:

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

The Trump GOP doesn’t have a problem with violent extremism; they have a problem with Muslims. You knew that, of course, but it bears repeating.

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  2. 2.

    schrodingers_cat

    They have a problem against anyone who is not white and Christian. Tom Cotton has introduced or is going to introduce a bill that wants to decrease legal immigration by 50%.

    *just saw a tweet so not sure about the specifics.

  4. 4.

    Yarrow

    “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,”

    CRIE? Sounds about right. Crying and whining is what wingnuts do when faced with resistance to their hateful ideas.

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne

    I know we’ve made snarky jokes that conservatives don’t think it’s terrorism unless you’re killed by a black or brown person, but it really is true. If you get killed by a “Christian” white supremacist, it’s just one of those things, you know?

  9. 9.

    hovercraft

    @schrodingers_cat:

    GOP Senators To Intro Bill That Could Curb Number Of Green Cards

    Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) will introduce a bill on Tuesday that would limit who could sponsor an immigrant to receive a green card, Politico reported Tuesday morning.

    Currently, U.S. citizens and permanent residents can sponsor family members to obtain green cards, but this bill would only allow someone’s spouse or child who is an unmarried minor to sponsor them for a green card, according to Politico. The bill would also allow for children to bring over elderly parents, per Politico.

    The legislation would also limit the refugee program to 50,000 people per year and eliminate the diversity lottery, which sets aside 50,000 visas each year to citizens from countries from which few people immigrate to the U.S., per Politico.

    Cotton’s office told Politico that the bill would reduce legal immigration by about 40 percent in the first year of implementation and by 50 percent over ten years.

    “Sen. Cotton and I are taking action to fix the shortcomings in our legal immigration system,” Perdue told Politico. “Returning to our historically normal levels of legal immigration will help improve the quality of American jobs and wages.”

    Cotton said that Trump’s election made it clear that the American people want reforms to the immigration system.

    “Donald Trump was the only one who saw that most Americans don’t like our current immigration system,” he told Politico. “This is just the area of politics where I think leaders and elites are most disconnected from the people. Not just Republicans but in both parties, in business, in the media, in the academy, culture and so forth.”

    Cotton said that he has spoken with the Trump administration about his proposals and that he may introduce additional legislation addressing immigration, per Politico.

    So who do you think is affected by the diversity lottery, and what does he mean by historical immigration? Between the historical end run around immigration by importing people as cargo, and counting on our borders being porous, which historical norms are we returning to?

  10. 10.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    I had to stop watching and reading when Duffy whined about people in MAGA hats being beat up. Five days ago my daughter-in-law was followed around the local mall by a man asking her if she was “ready to go” and telling her Trump would deport her, asking if she was stealing from American stores, etc. She is a very Americanized US citizen who happens to have been born in Korea. She says this is her first experience with direct, overt racism in the US. I pray it is her last, but I’m not hopeful. So Sean Duffy can GTFO with his whiny snowflake self.

    OK, back to the post.

  14. 14.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Camerota: Why isn’t the president talking about white terrorism?
    Duffy: There’s a difference.

    Hmmm…what could that difference be, I wonder?

  15. 15.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    … So taking down the Confederate flag was worth 9 freaking lives?!?

    Man, I have to stop responding to each horror and finish watching/reading.

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Charlie Pierce saw the same bit

    Charles P. Pierce ‏@ CharlesPPierce 6m6 minutes ago
    Some talk about running this guy against Tammy Baldwin. Some work to be done, I’d say.

    and this, after all, was almost five years ago. Who remembers that far back? I wonder if it made Trump’s list

    On August 5, 2012, a massacre took place at the gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where 40-year-old Wade Michael Page fatally shot six people and wounded four others.[3][4] Page committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after he was shot in the stomach by a responding police officer.

    Page was an American white supremacist and Army veteran from Cudahy, Wisconsin. Apart from the shooter, all of the dead were members of the Sikh faith. The incident drew responses from President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Dignitaries attended candlelight vigils in countries such as the U.S., Canada, and India.[3][5][6] First Lady Michelle Obama visited the temple on August 23, 2012.[7]

  20. 20.

    greennotGreen

    Of course, Donald wants to stop any Muslims from being normalized in American culture. If (some forms of) Islam become accepted, can you imagine what that would do to the swim suit competition?

  21. 21.

    kindness

    Sounds like the Trumpsters are ignoring the intel people that are already in the middle east (or recently were) regarding this EO making their job so much more difficult/impossible.

    Gobsmacked I am. This admin spends it’s efforts budget fluffing the base (who won’t vote for him again for 4 years) rather than helping out the US’s Intel & State Dept communities. Sadly, I’m not shocked there. That is exactly what a Reality Game Show host would do.

  22. 22.

    NorthLeft12

    And this is surprising to anyone? It’s always different when us white [men] folks do something. Terrorism is not terrorism, murder is not murder, theft is not theft, fraud is not fraud, rape is not rape, sloth/greed/waste/discrimination…..you name it, there is always some kind of excuse that gets trotted out to explain away the odious and illegal behavior of whites. Sorry minorities and women, these excuses are strictly non-transferable.

  23. 23.

    waysel

    Betty Cracker, I thought it was you yesterday asking about threats to protest groups in Florida: Dear Patriots across the United States,

    Congressman Matt Gaetz is working closely with the Congress and President Trump to dismantle the Washington DC based unconstitutionally funded centralized fascist EPA –

    He will also be working to shut down the unconstitutionally funded Dept. Of Education –

    Of course all these DC offices are 10th Amendment violations and purely nothing more than a redistribution of wealth of your tax payer money flowing out of your state to slimy worms stealing your money in Washington DC.

    The states are able to manage their own environments and their own schools without Washington DC interference.

    Congressman Matt Gaetz is TODAY working with President Trump to start the process to build the WALL across our southern flank.

    Congressman Matt Gaetz is also working to block once again all potential terrorists from entering our nation from terrorist nations. Of course these same nations Trump blocked also have blocked Israelis from entering their nations – while Muslim 5th graders are learning how to kill us in training camps – A Bush appointed judge is letting them back in our nation –

    RIGHT NOW A COMMUNIST THREAT AGAINST CONGRESSMAN MATT GAETZ HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AND A RAPID PROTECTION RESPONSE IS NOW UNDERWAY

    At noon on Thursday February 23rd Congressman Gaetz will be speaking at Grover T’s BBQ restaurant at 5887 US 90 – Milton Florida to discuss his plans to help return this nation back to Constitutional rule –

    The Communist Democrat Party of Escambia County has set up a protest against our Congressman – – 57 Marxists have signed up to disrupt Matt Gaetz event in FACEBOOK.

    I need all patriots – Tea Party members – Bikers – Conservative groups – real Americans at Grover T’s BBQ by 11 am to counter and protect Congressman Gaetz from the vicious Communist party group that is planning on disrupting this event.

    I will be mustering up the militia forces at 1030 am –

    I need all patriots in attendance to protect Congressman Gaetz from any potential disruption of his speech. Concealed carry permit holders most welcome – don’t forget your ammo. We support the right of protesters to protest but we must prepare a defensive posture for Congressman Gaetz –

    These Marxists have shown a propensity for violence at their protests across this nation – we will be there with the Sherriff to ensure force protection of our Congressman !

    Senior Chief Geoff Ross
    Surface Warfare Air Warfare
    US Navy retired
    Santa Rosa Militia
    This was posted by this guy on his Facebook page. Authorities have been contacted, but this seems very bad, and the Whitehouse wants to eliminate domestic terrorism investigations into white RWNJ groups.

  25. 25.

    scav

    Interesting that the Bannon and Trump coalition are also going after the control and definition of even the right kind of Christianity — the current Pope not meeting their specifications and thus being slated for removal.

  26. 26.

    Yarrow

    Sean Duffy is the guy who was on MTV’s “Real World” and various other reality shows, right? He certainly fits right in with our reality show president.

    I wonder how he’s going to feel about the non-brown immigration policy. His wife is Latina and her dad is first generation Mexican-American.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay (not the front-pager): That incident with your DIL makes me feel so sick and angry. There’s no question the ascension of Trump has emboldened the worst Americans. The question is: can we stuff them back under the rocks they crawled out from under without widespread violence? I hope so.

  28. 28.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    A great deal of this is designed to placate the fears of lazy and parochial as fuck white people who rarely (and have no desire to) travel more than 25 miles from their birthplaces.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    @waysel: Wow. That’s more explicit and lengthy than the threats my local groups have received; the communications from the cowardly shitbirds in our area have mostly consisted of pictures of guns, etc. If Milton wasn’t so damn far, I’d join you. Please stay safe.

  35. 35.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @scav:

    It’s the Know Nothings.

    Right wing inclined atheists, Catholics, Jews, Russian/Greek Orthodox and Hindus excuse and embrace them at their peril.

  36. 36.

    hovercraft

    @Mnemosyne:
    It’s like the police killings of unarmed black people, those are just isolated incidents, so shut up. The Oath Keepers and right wing nuts killing cops are just isolated incidents, so shut up. White supremacists killing black and brown people are just insolated incidents, so shut up. A young white guy shooting up a mal or a school, nothing to see here, it’s just one disturbed guy, shut up. A black person killing a white person, Oh My God send in the national guard, they are out of control, unwed mothers, welfare, must have the death penalty. A Muslim killing any damn body, it’s a billion people’s fault, be afraid, be very afraid, if we aren’t afraid we will all die tomorrow, banish them all, hide under the bed.
    Same as it ever was, white people are never responsible for crimes committed by a white person, the rest of us have to constantly prove that we did not approve of any crime committed by a member of our race/ ethnicity/ religion.

  37. 37.

    boatboy_srq

    @hovercraft: And thus (among other methods) does the Reichwing give the lie to all their protestations about how Teh Illeeygulls should get in line for legal immigration like everyone else because that’s how entering Ahmurrrrrca is done. You can’t simultaneously “crack down” on undocumented entry and twist the valve shut on documented immigration, and still pretend that internationals are welcome.

  41. 41.

    boatboy_srq

    @Kay (not the front-pager): Welcome to the New Yuugely Great Ahmurrrrca that the tRumpets demanded. Horrible, rude, aggressively offensive, racist/sexist/anti-Otherist sentiments are now permitted public display without consequence. Don’t like it? Take your Blah/Brown/Yellow/Queer/Female/Whatever self to one of Those Godless Soshulist places that cater to the likes of you.

    I really REALLY wish that were snark, but too often that’s the sentiment I run into. I am so sorry your family had to encounter it, but unless all of us get prepared – and fast – to resist it and call it out, the US (among other places) is in for more of it and worse examples of it.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

    Kinda reminds me of when the FBI would say that there was no such thing as the Mafia.

    The Trump GOP doesn’t have a problem with violent extremism; they have a problem with Muslims.

    Well, you kmow, there are a lot of bad hombres among the Muslims. Or something equally stupid.

    @scav:

    Interesting that the Bannon and Trump coalition are also going after the control and definition of even the right kind of Christianity — the current Pope not meeting their specifications and thus being slated for removal.

    The pope is also a bad hombre.

  46. 46.

    hovercraft

    @kindness:

    This admin spends it’s efforts budget fluffing the base (who won’t vote for him again for 4 years)

    Huh?
    They will vote for him again, right now they are loving him, his approval rating among republicans is at
    80% ish. When he does terrible things to them he will lie and say that it was Obama who did it, and they will believe him. They love his attitude so they will be willfully blind to his shortcomings. Terrorist attacks will be the fault of the judiciary, democrats, Obama and the media, all who stopped him from running roughshod over the rule of law will be the ones responsible. They will use the Darth Vader, Karl Rove playbook but upped to eleventy. If he is as big a failure as we expect, some may stay home, but not as many as we would expect, he will have managed to shit all over liberals and black and brown people for four years, that in and of itself will be a big achievement. Plus he will have earned their respect for putting that evil bitch Hillary in her place along with all those shrill women who thought to take over their country. They will vote for him, he stopped the browning of America.

  47. 47.

    Patricia Kayden

    @hovercraft: Wonder how businesses/corporations will react to such a bill. I understand the need to restrict the numbers of people coming into any country since no country can take in an unlimited number of people. However, limits should not be racially motivated or based on religious bias. Whether Rightwingers want to admit it or not, the U.S. is a multicultural, multiracial, religiously diverse country and we’re not going back to the Whites-only immigration policies of the past.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    LISTEN UP, EVERYONE!!

    Sen. Thom Tillis of NC is undecided on Betsy DeVos and is actively seeking input. You do not have to be a constituent. I left my name, ZIP Code, and phone number.

    202-224-6342

    I got a busy signal the first time I called, got right through a few minutes later.

    CALL.

    (And excuse me for shouting, but it’s important.)

  50. 50.

    Aleta

    GOP doesn’t even see his incompetence as a threat. They still think it means he can be worked around, while they stay safe. (This is the same argument I heard from two 20 yr old stoner boys last summer, explaining why he would be a safer president than HRC.)

  51. 51.

    Patricia Kayden

    @LAO: I bet a lot of those Sheriffs are very concerned about BLM protesters and Native American anti-DAPL protesters. Waiting for those groups to be called terrorists by this regime.

  52. 52.

    boatboy_srq

    @waysel: Ayuh. That’s not atypical.

    When was it that anyone not a Teahadi automatically became a traitor? A what point did Loyal Opposition become The Enemy? FFS people ita not as if we have to agree on everything (except of if you ask them, you do)…

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @Yarrow:

    Can’t wait for them to say immigration is restricted to only white, Christian people. Bring it, dumbass racists.

    Of course it’s coming. From another poster:

    @hovercraft:

    Cotton’s office told Politico that the bill would reduce legal immigration by about 40 percent in the first year of implementation and by 50 percent over ten years.

    “Sen. Cotton and I are taking action to fix the shortcomings in our legal immigration system,” Perdue told Politico. “Returning to our historically normal levels of legal immigration will help improve the quality of American jobs and wages.”

    Cotton said that Trump’s election made it clear that the American people want reforms to the immigration system.

    See how the goal posts have moved?

    Angry conservatives previously were upset about illegal aliens coming from Mexico, etc., and maybe anger about some H1-B visa workers, but they didn’t have any firm ideas about “reforming” the immigration system. But the white nationalist agenda is all about restricting nonwhite immigration. There are also some people, not associated with white nationalists, who would ban all immigration, limiting the United States to those legal citizens, of all ethnicities, who are already here.

  56. 56.

    Hal

    Sean Duffy is noxious. Former cast member of the Real World, his wife is another Real World alum Rachel Campos. Cuban American Rachel, but I guess that makes her one of the “good” minorities.

  58. 58.

    hovercraft

    @Kay (not the front-pager):
    I’m so sorry about your DIL’s encounter, I guess the good news is that she never experienced this sort of thing before. She is fortunate in that, many of us have had to live with people telling us to go back where we came from all our lives. My response is that hell no am I going back to Milwaukee, too fucking cold.
    But seriously, tell her that people like that asshole are in the minority, and that it’s better for them to be up front about their racism and xenophobia so that we know who we are fighting against, and who to avoid. He is a sad and bitter person who’s taking his frustrations out on her, the best revenge is to live her life and be happy.

  59. 59.

    Gin & Tonic

    Open thread? Cool.

    A Canadian Boeing 777-300 was apparently stranded in Iqualuit (formerly Frobisher Bay, NWT). They needed an engine, which is apparently the world’s largest jet engine. It was flown in from Zurich by a Ukrainian An-124, the world’s second-largest airplane. Here’s brief video of its landing.

  60. 60.

    Jeffro

    @LAO:

    I saw on twitter that Trump is meeting with county sheriffs today.

    Well, that’s certainly both appropriate AND an efficient use of his time.

  61. 61.

    Barbara

    @hovercraft: Well, I have always thought the lottery was kind of unfair, and I have met people who have won it. All great people. But still, there are long waiting lists from other countries and I don’t know why it wouldn’t just be fairer to give more Filipinos or Koreans, for instance, the chance to enter legally. I also think the H1B visa program is being subverted as simply an easy way to facilitate outsourcing, and whatever you think of it, that was not its intent. Even though these two policies affect relatively few people, and are basically at the margin of immigration policy, these kinds of points of unfairness can poison people’s views about immigration more generally. But I oppose simply limiting the number of green cards. That actually makes no sense and will likely generate hugely unfair outcomes.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    @schrodingers_cat: O.K. Here’s the thing. That Diversity Lottery was going to go away regardless. That was gone in Comprehensive Immigration Reform. It excluded the countries with the largest backlogs of applicants. I know, I know, the right wing hated it because of “diversity” in the name, but it has a weird history. This isn’t a return to 1920 – are the Chinese limited to Guam and Hawaii again? Is immigration from Nigeria set to 0? I’m not certain if this is the immigration bill hill to die on.

  66. 66.

    boatboy_srq

    @scav: That’s part and parcel of FundiEvangelist Xtianity. Ask the Xtians to define “Christian” and you’ll get an answer that excludes a lot of people – frequently anyone outside their own local parish. The ONLY time you hear them wax expansive on the definition is when they need Catholics and mainstream Protestants to support some policy, or condemn some international incident, where Xtians will benefit.

  68. 68.

    Barbara

    @Kay (not the front-pager): I used to date a doctor who was born in China. He used to work in rural emergency rooms from time to time during his residency years and he said that there was not a day that would go by when someone would not pointedly ask where he was from. His first response: I am from [university hospital town]. They would squirm. “No, I mean, where are you FROM.” And he would tell them where he had gone to medical school. The truly rude diehards who didn’t or wouldn’t get the point, persisted, and he would finally say, “Oh, you want to know where I was BORN — I was born in Taiwan.” I wonder how many did not even knew where Taiwan was.

  70. 70.

    gene108

    @hovercraft:

    So who do you think is affected by the diversity lottery, and what does he mean by historical immigration?

    Norwegians?

    Seriously, the diversity lottery is a piece of crap.

    The problem with U.S. immigration is there’s a cap on the number of GC’s issued per country. Many countries – like Norway – do not come close to hitting their quota of GC’s.

    Other countries, like Mexico (for family sponsorship), and India (for employment sponsorship), have decades long backlogs because the quota for these countries does not keep pace with their level of immigration.

    Indians and Mexicans, who are the ones really and truly stuck waiting for Green Cards, aren’t benefiting from the diversity lottery. They are not under represented. But they are the ones, who really need the system reformed, so they can either immigrate and reunite with family or no longer be on work visas.

    A better use of the diversity lottery would be to allocate those visas for countries, with backlogs.

    Right now, some random guy gets to jump ahead of everybody because his/her name comes up on the diversity lottery. It is not fair and does nothing to alleviate the current problems with the immigration system.

  71. 71.

    hovercraft

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Whether Rightwingers want to admit it or not, the U.S. is a multicultural, multiracial, religiously diverse country and we’re not going back to the Whites-only immigration policies of the past.

    They are way too late anyway, the birth numbers tell it all, non white births in this country are far outstripping those of whites, The far right can keep exhorting it’s followers to have huge families, but there aren’t enough takers, after all someone has to raise and support those kids, not all of them can get TV shows. The population has passed the tipping point, in a couple of decades we will all be minorities.

  75. 75.

    tpherald

    Why do you feel the need to differentiate from the general GOP here?

    The Trump GOP doesn’t have a problem with violent extremism; they have a problem with Muslims.

    That’s been the general GOP line espoused on Fox News, AM hate radio and Breitbart for years now.

  76. 76.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Posted this earlier today, may fit better here:

    I was just thinking about camps and internment.

    A lawyer in my office is from Bosnia and arrived as a refugee (she was a youngish Yugoslavian lawyer, her husband a gynecologist – they had resources, so they managed to get out early). She’d been born in Dubrovnik and they were living in Sarajevo. Describes herself as “communist atheist Muslim”, which makes sense.

    She’s an American citizen now, but her parents and in laws still live in the vicinity of Sarajevo and she visits there a few times a year. What she reports happens as civil order breaks down is that quite often your oppressors are people you were previously acquainted with or even considered as “friends”; this fact stuns you into a paralysis and a belief that this will pass and things will get better. Unfortunately, those people who are known to you – have the same amusements, have friends in common – listen to the firehose of propaganda from the regime stirring the division and come to be more brutal and inhumane, and that while they may not be the ones to target you personally for real brutality, they’ll target those who they don’t know, and won’t really help when people unknown to you target you.

    I could see that happening here, and not just with regard to Muslims.

  77. 77.

    waysel

    @delk: The guy is plainly certifiable. Then again, so is the Republican president. The bad news is , this Santa Rosa militia is very likely real, and dangerous. Northwest Florida is very red with a lot of very backwoods bigots that loves them some guns and Jeebus.

  78. 78.

    gwangung

    @gene108: And folks need to remember that there are backlogs BECAUSE of decades of out and out racist immigration bans, from East Asians to Filipinos to South Asians to any other country that even vaguely looks like they have brown inhabitants.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    @Brachiator:

    See how the goal posts have moved?

    Angry conservatives previously were upset about illegal aliens coming from Mexico, etc., and maybe anger about some H1-B visa workers, but they didn’t have any firm ideas about “reforming” the immigration system. But the white nationalist agenda is all about restricting nonwhite immigration.

    Goal posts have not moved. Much like “fiscal responsibility” and “run away deficits” are smoke screens for gutting Medicare and Social Security, so the rich can get more tax cuts, the people talking about limiting illegal immigration were always about restricting all forms of immigration.

    Once they get rid of illegal immigration, they will come hard for all other forms of immigration.

    They want the 1920’s law in place, which basically ended immigration into the U.S. for 40 years.

    It’s just bonus points that they can keep non-whites out.

    There are also some people, not associated with white nationalists, who would ban all immigration, limiting the United States to those legal citizens, of all ethnicities, who are already here.

    They may not openly associate with the Aryan Brotherhood, but they are still racists, and why would racists want fucking socialist Euro-weenies flooding into this country? They maybe white, but they bring over dangerous ideas, like a strong social safety net.

    They want to America to be the way it was in the 1950’s and 1960’s, with a much higher percentage of American born whites.

    Stopping immigration and forcing higher white birthrates is the only way to reset the demographics of this country.

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @lamh36: Sounds like something an authoritarian would say. In that same meeting, Trump claimed that crime rates are the highest they’ve been in 40+ years — a bald-faced lie. He’s setting them up to crack down on people, and it won’t be white militias and open carry goons.

  81. 81.

    Barbara

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t want to sound like a conservative crazy horse, but I have always wondered about the limits of family reunification, ever since my erstwhile Chinese boyfriend’s grandfather grilled me at length on why, if he was able to get a visa to live in the U.S., he should not be able to collect monthly social security. His view was that because his son had paid in that should make him eligible. I explained about 40 quarters of work, etc. My boyfriend said that one thing I needed to understand about China was that the elderly had traditionally been revered and had a hard time comprehending that a society wouldn’t just take care of them.

  83. 83.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    What she reports happens as civil order breaks down is that quite often your oppressors are people you were previously acquainted with or even considered as “friends”

    This is the phenomenon described so extensively and well in Timothy Snyder’s Black Earth.

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    This has always been the agenda of FAIR, VDARE etc. Now they have the AG and the President in their corner. That’s the difference.

    Yes. Agendas don’t matter so much when the person is a racist nutcase blogger, etc. But when they can affect actual law and policy, then it’s a whole different level of pain.

  85. 85.

    gene108

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I think Cotton is also going after family reunification.

    I wouldn’t be surprised.

    They really want the demographics of this country be what they were 50 to 70 years ago.

    That is the end game.

    To make America as native born white as possible.

  86. 86.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Barbara: Build a wall keep everyone out. Then go after the immigrants already here.Then go after everyone who is a naturalized citizen. Nirvana.

    ETA: No birthright citizenship too. Sorry forgot to add that.

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    @tpherald: You’re right: Trump is the logical culmination of a decades-long Republican project; he says aloud what they’ve been dog-whistling for years. But if Trumpism suffers the massive electoral defeat it deserves in the coming years, you can bet your boots the Republican Party will try to pretend Trump himself was an aberration. I think the Trump brand should be burned into their fucking hides so they can’t obscure the connection.

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36:
    @Betty Cracker:

    At a meeting Tuesday morning with sheriffs from around the country, Sheriff Harold Eavenson complained about a state senator for getting in the way of some measures he felt would be helpful.

    “Want to give his name? We’ll destroy his career,” Trump offered.

    Who even thinks like this, let alone says it out loud, let alone in front of pool reporters?

    /rhetorical question, of course

  91. 91.

    scav

    The other interesting thing about the Pope thing might be that Putin has his tame pontiff, so Trump might want one of his own. Trump wants Putin’s powers, Putin’s parades, Putin’s press ….. Others in his merry band will have other agendas and the cheering masses will follow along in the knownuthin’ rut but Mr. Late Night Whining about Image and where’s my tame British Royals fuck Parliament wants the PokePontiff for his own reasons.

  94. 94.

    TenguPhule

    @kindness: Kinda a clue that The Emperor is not interested in the voting in the next election, because the machines are going to say what he wants them to say.

    But finding storm trooper fodder, that has a deadline and Donny boy knows all about deadlines.

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jennifer BenderyVerified account
    ‏@ jbendery
    “Want to give his name? We’ll destroy his career.” –Trump, today, to a TX sheriff who said an unnamed state senator is hampering his job

    “First he came for the Texas state legislators…..”
    GOP Senators about a year from now

  98. 98.

    hovercraft

    I have no words.

    Suit: Daily Mail Article Hurt Melania Trump’s Chance To Profit As FLOTUS

    Melania Trump’s lawyers alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday that the First Lady’s “unique once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to profit from her White House role was damaged by a Daily Mail article claiming she once worked as an escort.

    The suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court against the tabloid’s owner, Mail Media, seeks compensatory and punitive damages of at least $150 million.

    According to the suit, Trump planned to leverage her years as “one of the most photographed women in the world” to establish new “licensing, branding and endorsement” deals worth millions of dollars. She intended to “launch a broad-based commercial brand” selling “apparel accessories, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care, skin care and fragrance,” the suit states.

    The lawsuit alleges that Trump’s reputation was undermined at a particularly opportune moment by the Mail article, which published unsubstantiated allegations from a Slovenian magazine that the First Lady had worked for an escort service. That article was eventually retracted.

    A judge in Maryland dismissed a similar suit earlier this month, claiming the state court didn’t have the jurisdiction to pursue a case against the U.K.-based Mail Media.

    The First Lady’s lawyer, Charles Harder, announced on Tuesday that she had agreed to settle for a “substantial sum” with a Maryland blogger who also published a post about the escort allegations. In a statement that Harder provided to Poynter, blogger Webster Tarpley said his story was “replete with false and defamatory statements” that he “fully” retracted.

    Harder has been retained by many high-profile clients, includuing disgraced Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Last year, Trump ally Peter Thiel paid Harder to represent former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, in an invasion-of-privacy suit against Gawker Media. The suit resulted in the media company’s bankruptcy.

    Read the lawsuit below:

  100. 100.

    Betsy

    @Kay (not the front-pager): I am so sorry that she was threatened and harassed like that.

    Unsolicited advice. Because misogynists often seek out women to harass and threaten, where they wouldn’t bother a man — I have adopted a policy of snarling, or shouting if necessary, “GET AWAY FROM ME NOW, BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE!” This works extremely well in public places.

    Also — all women should feel ready to avail themselves of many men’s extremely strong cultural training to protect women from harm. Example: One time it was just some asshole in a parking lot who wanted to claim my empty shopping buggy. He followed me toward the store, saying he saw it first, and bothering me the way that almost no man would dare bother another man. Once I got to the store entry door, I was safe from him — but while I shopped, I saw him waiting for me to come out in the parking lot. I was debating what to do.

    Finally, I just approached a decent-seeming man and said, “Beg your pardon — but — there’s some weirdo in the parking lot who bothered me on the way in — would you mind — just — walking with me out to my car? So sorry to trouble you –” Before you could say Jack Robinson the guy was ON IT. I’ve done this a few times in my life, and while some guys would be weirded out a little, it seems that MOST men immediately jump right on this.

    Not for everyone, and, it isn’t perfectly ideally feminist in theory, but, can be a very practical option to keep in mind.

    The feminist aunt-deities, I think, say it’s fair use to opportunistically co-opt the patriarchy to protect yourself from harm and threat – as long as you’re not oppressing another woman in the process.

  101. 101.

    ruemara

    This shit is why I’m not forgiving towards any republicans I know (calling them friends is a betrayal of the word; acquaintances seems too good for them, who voted Trump. AND, any Cranky Grandpa Jesus worshipers or “I’m too woke to vote” types. These fucking white supremacists are in charge. They affect me, my family, even my very presence in this country by having this power. Assholes. Left, right or center, you didn’t give a damn about POC if you didn’t vote for HRC.

    Edited to state: Fuck Sean Duffy & Fuck MTV for boosting the lives of this mediocre asshole and his mediocre nitwit wife. terrible from the first to the last.

    @Yarrow: She’s shit on a stick and has been a godawful conservative since she slithered onto the tv screen. Totally down for the cause.

  104. 104.

    TenguPhule

    @Patricia Kayden: Numbers spread out and uncoordinated. Darth Donald just needs to muster sufficient brownshirts to achieve localized tactical dominance. After that, more people just mean more targets.

  106. 106.

    Major Major Major Major

    @JordanRules:

    In Germany, they appear to be on it and are proactively going after white extremists.

    German police raid far-right group that wants new Reich

    The key distinction of course is that being a wannabe secessionist Nazi is actually illegal in Germany.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @Barbara:

    I had a college friend from Singapore and people would get freaked out when she spoke, because she was Chinese but spoke with a very British accent. It. Did. Not. Compute.

  111. 111.

    hovercraft

    Poor Grannystarver, this is supposed to be the pinnacle of his congressional career, Speaker, a republican controlled Senate, and a president in the WH who will turn all of his wt dreams into law, he should be riding high. Instead this is how he has to spend his time.

    Asked on Tuesday about President Donald Trump’s attacks on the “so-called judge” who blocked his immigration executive order nationwide, House Speaker Paul Ryan defended the President.

    Despite the insults, Trump was respecting the appeals process, Ryan said at his weekly press conference.

    “We respect an independent judiciary. This is a separate branch of government,” Ryan said. “He’s not the first President to get frustrated with a ruling from a court.”

    “I think what’s most important are the actions,” he continued. “This administration is honoring the ruling, and this administration is going through the proper procedures to deal with the ruling to try and get the ruling overturned. They’re going through the appeals process, they’re respecting the separation of powers in the process. Look, I know he’s an unconventional President. He gets frustrated with judges, we get frustrated with judges. But he’s respecting the process, and that’s what counts at the end of the day.”

    Meanwhile the Incompetent Whiner in Chief is weighing in.

    President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “hopefully” his executive order barring travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries will not go before the Supreme Court. He defended the controversial ban as a matter of “common sense.”

    “We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters at a meeting with county sheriffs. “We have a big court case. We’re well-represented, and we’re going to see what happens.”

    “Is it going to go to the Supreme Court, do you think?” a reporter asked.

    “Could. I mean, we’ll see. Hopefully it doesn’t have to. It’s common sense,” Trump replied. “You know, some things are law, and I’m all in favor of that, and some things are common sense. This is common sense.”

  116. 116.

    Brachiator

    @gene108:

    the people talking about limiting illegal immigration were always about restricting all forms of immigration.

    This is not true and oversimplifies the issue. This is like saying that all liberals are for open borders.

    They want the 1920’s law in place, which basically ended immigration into the U.S. for 40 years.

    There ain’t nothing special about the 1920s. You can point to many other eras where there were racist immigration policies. The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law in 1882.

    It’s just bonus points that they can keep non-whites out.

    Uh, no. The white nationalists specifically want to keep out nonwhites. Even a moron like Ann Coulter is all aflutter for bringing in more white people.

    They may not openly associate with the Aryan Brotherhood, but they are still racists, and why would racists want fucking socialist Euro-weenies flooding into this country? They maybe white, but they bring over dangerous ideas, like a strong social safety net.

    This makes no sense. Trump and his band of Deplorables have no problem with Nigel Farage, Marie Le Pen and other European nationalist right wingers.

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: here’s the guy Trump is offering to destroy

    Radley Balko ‏@radleybalko 9m9 minutes ago
    Appears that the Texas state senator whose career Trump threatened to destroy in that video is GOP Sen. Bob Hall, a Tea Party guy.

    and here’s why

    Annie LowreyVerified account
    ‏@ AnnieLowrey
    Trump blithely offers to destroy the career of politician who wants to require conviction before asset forfeiture:

  121. 121.

    Peale

    @gene108: What they appear to be doing is trying to impose a nuclear family limit on what counts as part of family reunification. Outside the diversity visa program – which as I said earlier, I think was a goner as part of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, I seem to remember people were upset about that reform limiting family reunification as well. We need to look at the levels. Did they reduce the levels. I think the 40% number is smoke and mirrors. Yes, it means that uncles and brothers and nephews are going to have to qualify for immigration for other reasons. But unless they eliminate that family category in general, that means wives, children and parents will have more spaces. Is there a backlog of spouses and children under the current program? I believe that there are.

  123. 123.

    Peale

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That demon! He might think that police may be abusing asset forfeiture in order to fund themselves? Never! Police are always right. Police have jobs that are so difficult and we don’t know what its like. So shut your mouth, while I accuse you of conspiring to use the money in your wallet to buy drugs. Its mine now. Mine. Mine. Mine.

  124. 124.

    Barbara

    @Peale: I think that many people do not understand how many quotas there currently are and how hard it is to get legal status.

  125. 125.

    boatboy_srq

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: this sounds like Louisiana circa 1995 – when the highway patrol was filling a shopping list with impounded/auctioned out-of-state cars (cite a motorist with a desirable out-of-state vehicle, impound the car, set the court date months away, auction the car when the driver couldn’t make it to court and make a tidy sum on the deal).

  127. 127.

    Miss Bianca

    @ruemara:

    They affect me, my family, even my very presence in this country by having this power. Assholes. Left, right or center, you didn’t give a damn about POC if you didn’t vote for HRC.

    Next time I have to deal with my “Too Woke to Vote (Democrat)” white multi-culti friends, I am going to quote you for truth, here.

  129. 129.

    Chris

    @hovercraft:

    “Could. I mean, we’ll see. Hopefully it doesn’t have to. It’s common sense,” Trump replied. “You know, some things are law, and I’m all in favor of that, and some things are common sense. This is common sense.”

    That’s the thing. To most white people, it is. “Of course Muslims commit more terrorism just like blacks commit more crime and Mexicans deal more drugs” is, to most white Americans, as basic or more a statement of common sense as “look both ways before crossing the road” and “never run with scissors.” And they get frustrated when all the “politically correct” people out there contradict them with “facts.” The U.S. is still far more racist than it likes to admit and tribalism in general is a powerful fucking drug.

  130. 130.

    Mike in NC

    If the Trump regime and its followers want more white people, they could borrow an idea from Nazi Germany and institute the Mother’s Cross, which came in gold, silver, and bronze classes, depending on how many babies a woman could squirt out for Der Fuhrer.

  133. 133.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    Pope Francis survived a murderous dictatorship in Argentina. Trump has no idea what he’s up against.

    ETA: FY autocorrect turned “murderous” into “murder Pie.” WTF?

  135. 135.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Peale: Family reunification is already pretty redundant for countries that send in the most immigrants. Unless Tom Cotton wants to prevent American citizens from marrying other nationals there is no way they can attain their numerical goal.

  136. 136.

    gvg

    @Barbara: That is not what I have read for a long time. The government of Communist China did NOT do much if anything for the elderly. Actually economically it was beyond their means until relatively recently. It was especially bad in the country and for any out group ethnically, but I don’t think they promised anything. What there was and is was a strong cultural tradition of FAMILY taking care of the elderly. Retirement was having able bodied children. This is why the one child policy was so hard to maintain and resulted in serious penalties that seem harsh to us. it also meant each couple must accept supporting both sets of older parents and women still don’t have equality in career and earning choices. This is also why they had a problem with abortion of female children and now have too many men with no wives etc. It surprised me to find out this decades ago. I had assumed all communist countries had something like SS. When I was young, they still had a growing too fast for food supplies population. there wasn’t enough extra in the system to have elder care beyond family. Now they have gone rapacious capitalism and there are different problems like peoples little farm plots being taken for profits…but eventually the overall income may rise so that they can do more.

  137. 137.

    mr_gravity

    @tpherald: I support any effort to tie the president* to the party that elected him. GOPTrump, TrumpGOP, GOP-Popular vote loser, Fuckface Von Clownstick: De facto leader of the Republican Party.

    He bought them. He owns them.

  138. 138.

    mai naem mobile

    @ruemara: they also have 6 or 7 kids. And he’s the Rep who waa bitching about how what he made really wasn’t thathat much. Duffys been working for the govt forever so its the taxpayer who pays for his huge family’s healthcare costs. Really he needs to STFU. I used to watch RW back when Rachel was on. Ugh, annoying whiny little beeeyotch. She was in the SF one where the guy died of AIDS.

  140. 140.

    Peale

    @Barbara: I’m hoping that OUR side this time, now that we’re out of power, can actually learn about the existing system so that we can critque the changes. This was actually a discussion OUR side should have had three years ago during CIR. But it was difficult to follow the details on what was and wasn’t going to happen in that legislation. As usually, the national press was caught up with illegal immigrants and horse race effects.

  142. 142.

    Gravenstone

    @waysel: The irony of claiming Democrats are “Communists” and “Marxists” while his Reichsfuhrer Trump is literally beholden to an honest to gods Communist would be hilarious, if not for the dire consequences of these morons actually acting out their fantasies.

  143. 143.

    TenguPhule

    @Peale: I think we’re going to have quite a bit of higher priority concerns all too soon. Like clean water and food that won’t kill us.

  144. 144.

    HeidiMom

    @Mnemosyne: Well, there was a “murder Pie” in the final episode of last year’s Game of Thrones, but I don’t know if that explains its appearance via autocorrect.

  146. 146.

    Shalimar

    @waysel: Gaetz is a nepotism congressman, in office because daddy is well respected and junior is too incompetent to do anything else. This isn’t the first time he has said something horrible. Hopefully, his competent opponent from last year will run again and 2018 will be such a great anti-Trump year that even that seat can change hands.

    I know, almost no chance, but holy shit that asshole is evil in the stupidest way possible.

  152. 152.

    Elizabelle

    From Fuck the Fucking New York Times (I know): and fixed this for them:

    WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos on Tuesday as education secretary, approving the embattled nominee only with the help of a historic tiebreaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence.

    The 51-to-50 vote elevates Ms. DeVos — a wealthy donor from Michigan who has devoted much of her life to expanding educational choice through charter schools and vouchers, but has limited experience with the public school system gutting U.S. public schools — to be steward of the nation’s schools.

    …. It was the first time that a vice president has been summoned to the Capitol to break a tie on a cabinet nomination, according to the Senate historian.

    The two Republicans who voted against the nominee, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, announced their opposition to her last week. In back-to-back floor speeches, the lawmakers said Ms. DeVos was unqualified because of a lack of familiarity with public schools and with laws meant to protect students, despite her passion for helping them. [Say what??]

    Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski said they had also been influenced by the thousands of messages they had received urging them to reject the nomination.

    …. Despite clamorous objections to Ms. DeVos from teachers’ unions and even some charter organizations that typically oppose them, opponents nonetheless fell shy of defeating her nomination. Most Republicans described her as committed and determined to put what is best for children above all else. [What else are they going to say? And is this even a true statement??]

    Ms. DeVos has focused on expanding parental choice in education and embracing charter schools, but also on vouchers that can allow students to use taxpayer dollars to pay tuition at private, religious and for-profit schools.

    We get to the problem in the literal last sentence of the FTFNY Times’ reporting.

    “Historic” vote? More like catastrophic. The GOP owns this, and hang it around the neck of Pence.

  155. 155.

    Gravenstone

    @Betty Cracker: I can’t imagine knuckle draggers like the loudmouth who harassed the young woman would respond well to having someone else get into their face over such abuse. Might be enough to cause them to slink back home with with their tail between their legs.

  157. 157.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    (@aimai: She wasn’t so much frightened as embarrassed/hurt/angry/ashamed. She was shopping for a much-anticipated trip back ‘home’ to see her mom. I just hope the experience hasn’t ruined her trip.

    I haven’t slept well since it happened

  158. 158.

    J R in WV

    @Gin & Tonic:

    We saw one of those giant airplanes while we were on the tarmac at G H W Bush Airport in Houston TX. My brother said they were commonly in there to pick up giant pieces of oil field equipment to ship to new fields in BumF-istan that wouldn’t fit on any other plane. Really big!

    I see they’re about the same size as a C-5, but have over 100,000 pounds more lift capacity. Way to go, Ukraine aerospace industry! No wonder Putin wants the Ukraine back, they’re a better aerospace producer than the Russians are.

  159. 159.

    Barbara

    @gvg: This was in Taiwan, and said grandfather had fled China in 1949 as the communists made a final push. What my friend was referring to was familial reverence — and I assumed then as now that his grandfather was optimistically hoping that he could move to the U.S. without incurring too much economic burden for his son.

  160. 160.

    J R in WV

    @Betty:

    Spoof is un-possible while Don Trump is president. The Onion news media are screwed, they can’t make up anything more screwy than reality in the White House right now.

    And of course, we are in danger of getting screwed, and have to protect ourselves and each other.

  161. 161.

    No One You Know

    @Patricia Kayden: I wish I could agree. Corporations aren’t, in my view, interested in the claim of diversity.

    I personally don’t agree that it’s inevitable that we will remain diverse, since so many Americans disagreed, and disagreed so effectively that it enabled this conversation.

    Corporations are interested in competent help. And that’s why the multinational corporations will fight this: they not only need the brains co-located with the money, they also need to keep their market share in foreign markets…which is much easier if they have representatives already working for them.

    Corporations may be a person in the eyes of Citizens United, but they don’t have a soul. I could put 40,000 Mission Statements into a thimble, shake them, and they’d rattle.

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