.
Per the Washington Post:
… Trump met in the Oval Office ahead of the prime-time address with Jamiel Shaw Sr., whose son was shot by a gang member in Los Angeles in 2008, and Jessica Davis and Susan Oliver, who were married to California police officers killed in the line of duty in 2014. All three were guests in the presidential box in the House chamber, as Trump aimed to make a pointed message about the costs of illegal immigration a week after the Department of Homeland Security rolled out sweeping new enforcement guidelines.
Trump was joined several times on the campaign trail by family members of victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, including so-called “angel moms,” whose children had been killed. As president, Trump has pledged to raise their profiles, and the new DHS guidelines issued last week included a provision to create a new office to support such victims and their families.
“I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American victims,” Trump said in his speech to Congress. “The office is called VOICE –- Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests.”
Trump’s spotlight on the victims’ families has sparked an outcry among those who charge the president is exaggerating the risks to sow public fear to make his proposals more politically expedient. Studies have shown that immigrants, including the estimated 11 million living here illegally, have lower crime rates than the native-born population…
With such a kewl acronym, who could be against it?
Every single Republican office-holder owes America a public apology for putting this monster at the head of their party, and then ratfvcking him into the Oval Office.
JPL
That just should not happen in our country. Is there anyway that the dems and moderate repubs can stop him?
legally?
Luckovich already responded to the speech…
PigDog
They have a voice, it’s called Breitbart. This sounds like big government interference into something the free market has already taken care of.
Omnes Omnibus
::Hulk Smash!::
Kropadope
It’s a good thing he’s doing this, immigrants have far too much institutional power and wield it recklessly against everyday Real Americans.
Patricia Kayden
How many standing ovations did Republicans give Trump tonight? They love him. I cringe whenever someone naively talks about impeachment. Not gonna happen. Sadly, Trump has free reign with courts being the one source of pushing back on his most onerous policies.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: You done well.
Baud
Josh Marshall
liberal
@JPL: for the thousandth fucking time, there are no moderate Republicans left. They range from right-wing, to extreme right-wing, to Nazi.
amk
@Baud: white privilege at work is
fascinatinghorrifying to watch.Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: So we have a President for whom mediocre is an aspiration?
Kropadope
@amk: The soft bigotry of low expectations. Donald Trump, our true affirmative action President. A much needed response to too many years of anti-white racist policies.
efgoldman
@Patricia Kayden:
Or maybe they’re just scared shitless that their racist flying monkey base will notice if they don’t, and there comes a primary.
efgoldman
@Baud:
He’ll revert. He can’t not. He yam what he yam.
JPL
@liberal: Then it’s up to us to speak up. You cannot allow a segment of our population to be labeled. That’s been tried before and it didn’t end well.
Yarrow
Didn’t watch, but this was interesting.
Reply to that tweet, with screen grab of generals at the speech, if you click through:
Kropadope
@efgoldman: He’ll get more credit for not publicly shitting himself than most pols get for long, distinguished, and accomplished careers.
MomSense
Jesus they are totally fucking fluffing 45 on MSNBC. He didn’t rant like a lunatic A+ his polls will be at 50% for two weeks.
Oh FFS.
Yarrow
@MomSense: MSNBC is NewFox. Not worth watching.
danielx
@Omnes Omnibus:
It would be nice to believe that he actually aspired to self-improvement, as opposed to self-aggrandizement. I mean, W was mediocre at best, but he at least went through the motions of being president and seemed to take the responsibilities of the office seriously. But he was kind of a picture of mediocrity as president, and we all know how that turned out.
I don’t think there is yet an adequate adjective for the depths to which the Orange Shitweasel has sunk and those he has yet to plumb.
Kropadope
@Yarrow: I didn’t know Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris were of the JCOS.
Mike J
Hey Omnes, have a professional q for you (and any other law talking type people). Not about law, but about support staff.
If you were a semi-retired solo practitioner who didn’t understand new fangled e-filing, how much would you pay somebody with tons of experience to take your pleadings and format them correctly and get them all properly e-filed with the court? Not a full time gig, just an hourly freelance deal as cases arise.
Neither of the people involved is me, but a friend was interested in what sounded fair.
MomSense
@Yarrow:
Yup. BTW Fuck you Paul Ryan looked especially punchable tonight. He seems so gleeful about taking healthcare away from 20+ million of us and causing people death and financial ruin.
Where did 45 get those employment statistics? WND? Breitbart? Did Stormfront start a new business channel?
Omnes Omnibus
@danielx: Sadly, point taken.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Bar is so low you could stub your big toe on it.
Yarrow
@Kropadope: Learn something every day!
efgoldman
@MomSense:
Only masochists watch that channel any more.
jl
@Yarrow: Those are Trumps generals? I will admit Trump is right about one thing, they do look like generals, and admirals, and etc. out of central casting.
Quite a gallery of expressions, none of them very promising.
So, Trump is really going to try to rile the country up over a non-existent immigration problem. Undocumented immigrants have been leaving faster than they have been arriving since the onset of the Great Recession. Even poor ol’ Mitt was on to better viewpoint than this fool: the undocumented immigrants would self-deport.
Saw a news article about how the Trumpsters in some town were all on board the Trump xenophobia wagon, until a very popular local pillar of the community turned out to be undocumented, and got busted.
Frothing and instigating on this relative non-problem is only good in the sense that it will produce Fail for the Trumpster, and will help keep his administration from causing bigger problems in other areas.
Yarrow
@MomSense: Does it even matter where the numbers came from? Someone wrote the speech and he read it. They could have just pulled those numbers out of thin air.
Facts don’t matter with him. It’s about image and appearance. From that standpoint he did well. The media is fluffing him. People are saying he looked presidential. It’s a win by his standards.
I’m hoping the IC has seen this and decides tomorrow is a good day for a leak.
mouse tolliver
Brian Williams says only someone hard-hearted could find fault with the way Trump used the dead SEALs widow tonight.
jl
BTW, what was this thing? Is this Frump’s first State of the Union Address? If it isn’t, what is it? Any lying fool can get up and address a joint session of Congress these days?
If it is his first SOTU address, no one wants to call it that so as not to degrade past and future addresses?
Mike J
https://t.co/Be0apnEUkx
Kropadope
Also, since this is an open thread, I want to address the assertion currently on the top right portion of my screen.
Only Han shot.
efgoldman
@mouse tolliver:
My heart has turned to granite. So has Brian Williams’ head. He got there first.
Yarrow
@mouse tolliver: Brian Williams lied about his wartime embed experiences. He lied a lot. Who is he to tell us how we should feel about the way the SEAL widow was used? STFU Brian Williams.
jl
@MomSense:
” Where did 45 get those employment statistics? WND? Breitbart? Did Stormfront start a new business channel? ”
Didn’t watch, but from what I read, same bogus stats as Frump and other GOPers used in the campaign. Count everyone over 16, including those in school or college, or disabled, or retired. But the current GOPers have their way, maybe an accurate reflection of their vision: if you are over 16 and not rich, you will be working at a crappy low paying job until you are dead dead dead and dead, Forever, the End.
MomSense
@mouse tolliver:
The point is that 45 showed himself to be hard hearted by taking advantage of the widow for his own political gain. Pointing out that it was a shitty thing to do demonstrates basic decency.
jl
@Yarrow: “lies’ is harsh. We can say ‘fantasizes aggressively’, maybe?
Eljai
@mouse tolliver: A ham sandwich has a higher IQ than Brian Williams.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: Chris Cillizza and Tweety and I don’t know who all else (not watching TV) may have forgotten that Trump blamed “my generals” for that SEAL’s death. Those guys have not, and I don’t think they will. Cause he will insult them again.
Thoroughly Pizzled
The media will never learn. Trump could personally strangle a reporter to death in a press conference and they’d forgive him if he gave a quote after.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yarrow
@MomSense: OT – How’s your mom? Did she get to the doctor’s appointment to get checked out? I think that was last week but I didn’t see any comment if you mentioned it. Hope everything is okay.
Kropadope
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
And if the quote were a claim he never strangled a reporter in a room full of reporters, they would report it as fact or at least allow for the possibility he was telling the truth.
The Lodger
@Thoroughly Pizzled: Strangling a member of the White House press corps? I’d congratulate him myself.
randy khan
@jl:
If that stat were accurate, the unemployment rate would be in the 30-35% range, and we would be in a genuine depression. Even U-6 is below 10% right now.
Another Scott
@jl: The incoming president gives an address to a joint session of Congress – not a SOTU.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who didn’t watch Donnie tonight.)
hilts
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Are useless tools full of hot air.
@efgoldman, @Yarrow – Given BriWi’s record as a fabricator related to his interaction with the US military, he should have recused himself from commenting on this subject.
Yarrow
I wonder what the ratings for his speech are going to be. Here’s hoping they’re low.
Steeplejack
Yeah, VOICE was the low point of the speech for me. Craven, opportunistic and media-shiny with the acronym.
Betty Cracker
I didn’t watch Dr. Shitgibbon’s Medicine Show, but I took a peek at Twitter awhile back, and it looks like the media rubes are swilling the snake oil. There was a quote from Van Jones saying something puke-inducing and cringeworthy like, “Donald J. Trump became POTUS tonight when he praised the sacrifice of the Navy SEAL.” GTFO, STFU, DIAF, etc.
efgoldman
@Eljai:
The sandwich certainly is more analytical and more truthful.
Yarrow
I think T better get Barron working the cyber right quick like:
hilts
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
They constantly set the bar too low for Trump and then normalize him for simply reading a damn teleprompter. CNN and MSNBC will not hold Trump accountable for his dishonesty and his dickishness.
Betty Cracker
This VOICE business is a blood libel.
Elizabelle
Colbert:
“This wasn’t a state of the union, because I think this time the Confederacy won.”
efgoldman
@Betty Cracker:
He’ll fuck up by the weekend, twittling and/or saying something so stupid and mendacious that the Villagers can’t help but notice. He can’t help it.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. It’s like prion disease.
Peale
@randy khan: lies! It’s a disaster! Carnage. I don’t want to come out from under my bed and you can’t market me!
Elizabelle
Colbert: “So many handshakes, such little hands.”
Peale
@efgoldman: on the plus side, I’m sure there will be more dead to praise before his term is done. The chances of him getting credit for every one is low.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@hilts:
I’m old enough to remember when using a teleprompter was a bad thing. Maybe they’re just happy that Dolt45 showed that he could read.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman:
The sun rises in the east and the tides go in and go out. Ya can’t explain that.
Kropadope
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, he can recognize most written words. I’m still not sure he understands the whole punctuation thing.
DocSardonic
Hope no one shows Chief Cheeto TinyHands the German carnival floats
https://www.thelocal.de/20170227/in-pics-german-carnival-floats-show-trump-no-mercy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@DocSardonic: What, ya think he’ll bomb Berlin?
jl
@Another Scott: I didn’t watch it either. thanks for the info. I didn’t know that.
FlipYrWhig
@Betty Cracker: I suppose at least he didn’t say “War hero? I like SEALs who _weren’t_ killed in raids.”
danielx
@Betty Cracker:
As long as he doesn’t actually froth at the mouth and/or shit his pants at the lectern, everything he emits will be called Churchillian rhetoric.
MomSense
@Yarrow:
She seems to be ok. We don’t know what happened and they ran all the tests. She is visiting a friend and when she gets back she has another follow up.
DocSardonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No idea… but given the relative lack of density of his epidermal layer anything is possible.
Yarrow
@MomSense: Odd. Well, wishing you all the best. I hope it was a one time thing with no other effects.
Yarrow
@FlipYrWhig: If anyone asks him tomorrow what he said tonight, I wonder if he’ll know.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yarrow: He watches “the shows” and all they’ll be talking about on “the shows” is how well he did; so of course he’ll know.
workworkwork
Wow, given the comments here at BJ, I’m extra glad that we didn’t watch.
Instead we spent the evening with season 2 of “The Americans”, i.e. government employees who know how to to do their jobs.
(Arkady is the man!)
chopper
jesus, these MSM schmucks are so fucking obsessed with the idea of trump “pivoting” that they’ll look at this bullshit excuse for a performance as evidence.
Timurid
Holy fuck, elites love this guy. Short of a full on psychotic break, they’re going to carry him to the finish line.
They want their white nationalist King that much.
Yarrow
@chopper: And by the end of the week he’ll “pivot” right back to what he has been all along. Because he hasn’t changed. Being able to read a speech someone else wrote is not a sign that he’s “presidential.”
I wonder if he’ll start attacking the dad of the SEAL? I can see that happening. He brought the widow to his speech and everyone cheered. Why can’t the dad get with the program? What’s his problem? Etc.
Elizabelle
On Colbert, I heard a clip of the GOP cheering wildly when Trump talked of repealing Obamacare.
I wanted to take away their healthcare, from every one of the cheerers.
They have no decency.
Made me doubly glad not to have watched any of that shitshow.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus:
Check my math, but I believe that applies to two of the last three presidents
Sandia Blanca
I think a better interpretation of “VOICE” would be “Victims of ICE.”
mai naem mobile
I am glad I didn’t watch this. Ive been watching Colbert regularly but not sure if i can handle even just Colbert making fun of Lumpy tonight. I went on Twitter. I am beginning to wonder if Lumpy is really popular among Repubs or if Twitter is just full of Russian trolls.
Yarrow
@mai naem mobile: Both/and. He’s still fairly popular with Republican voters. And Twitter is full of Russian trolls.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the bad Islamic hombres were at the gates of your local airport weeks ago, so-called judges making you less safe!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Baud:
That seems relatively fair, if you’re not attuned to all the subtext and dog whistles. But Trump did come across as not completely insane (which is rare for him).
mouse tolliver
This is so bizarre. Tweety doing a Hardball special where the guests are Bill Maher, Michael Moore and Kathy Griffin. The professional comedians are doing a better job of cutting through Trump’s bullshit than the professional political commenters.
Apparently, Kathy Griffin (via the USO) has been to more war zones than Donald Trump.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mouse tolliver:
As has Sen. Franken.
bluehill
Snap polls show big approval for speech. If Bannon is smart, which I believe he is, he will keep using Trump this way while they do all the crappy stuff behind closed doors. Most of the public too busy, too dumb to notice/care and the people that criticize what’s happening will be labeled as un-American socialists. The media is already discredited. Sigh … everyday 1984 edges closer to becoming historical fiction.
goblue72
@Timurid: The wealthy industrialists liked Hitler too. The rich LIKE fascists. The fascists and the oligarchs are bosom buddies. Of COURSE they like Trump – he will shove through the tax cuts they want, funnel government contracts to all his rich buddies, eviscerate business regulations (and consumer & environmental protections). He will line their pockets, while also stomping on racial minorities and the poor – which is, generally speaking – right up the bigoted worldview that the wealthy classes are RIFE with. The elites are largely NOT nice people.
As for the privileged class of TV pundits and TV “journalists” – they aren’t going to upset their personal gravy trains by biting the hands that feed them. They are a servant class whose primary service is to keep the lid on the kettle of the public. They know what their jobs are.
And this goes for Van Jones. For most of America, he’s that “black guy” on CNN. But as someone who travels in Bay Area progressive circles, I’m long familiar with his schtick and the long string of various NGOs he’s founded that seem to do a lot of “awareness building” & “coalition building” without a lot less substance to show for it – save for elevating Van Jones national profile. I have friends in public policy and advocacy who work for some of the orgs he’s founded. They certainly are doing some good work. But Van is always more about Van than anything else.
The far left, the socialist and anarchist and antifa types – get a lot of snarky sneering flack from a number of commenters here. But they are far more on the money in seeing what is going on with Trump than the usual assortment of liberal technocrats running the Democratic Party. There’s reasons why Clinton lost and its not all about Comey.
Yarrow
@mouse tolliver: The court jester telling the truth has a long history.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@bluehill: not all of them, and not all of it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@goblue72: Preach it, Dwight! Done any highly successful grassroots organizing lately? Or have things been too busy in Cubicle 12, Row D
Yarrow
@bluehill: Bannon may be smart but Trump doesn’t like to be locked down. If he thinks he’s being relegated to reading speeches someone else wrote and doing not much else he’s going to rebel.
mouse tolliver
Here’s Kathy Griffin responding to a Tweety question about Republican obstruction on health care reform… “Well, you have to remind them… The Affordable Care Act was the Republican plan. It started out as hoping for single payer… It was the compromise from not being able to get single payer. And for all the Busters out there who turned into Trumpers, or whatever, Bernie wanted single payer and still does more than anybody. So when Obama tried to get single payer and then it turned into ACA that is the Republican compromise.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I thought he was on Row E, moving up in the world, I guess.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@mouse tolliver:
Well, I must have a heart of stone, because I thought it was obscene.
goblue72
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No but I have two bills I wrote running through Sacramento involving social safety net improvements with high likelihood of passage. What happens when they hit Jerry’s desk is another thing, admittedly. Will be in DC next month on Congressional visits for some Federal level work, though likely to be a bit depressing given the current lay of the land on domestic discretionary programs.
So yeah, I’m busy doing real progressive work, chump.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well said by Cox. My sentiments exactly.
bluehill
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Un-American socialists
@Yarrow: Unfortunately, I don’t think Trump is smart enough to realize he’s being manipulated. He really does he have some child-like traits. He’s like a 70-year boy king. Sure he will throw a tantrum here or there but deep down he wants affection and needs direction. His court is filled with people that just see him as a means to an end.
Steve in the ATL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t always agree with goblue72, but everything he says here seems spot on to me. What did you find objectionable?
Yarrow
@bluehill: True. But he also has always thrived on chaos. He wants it and to some extent needs it. Chaos is not good for the administration. So we’ll see how it goes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@goblue72: such a hero, yet so shy and anonymous….
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Trump delivered a State of the Union address and that’s a Win? The guy was a host on a reality show for years, of course he can read a script, good fucking god….
goblue72
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Having a nym to remain anonymous isn’t exactly some new thing on the Internets.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Sandia Blanca:
Word.
joel hanes
@Patricia Kayden:
How many standing ovations
I couldn’t bring myself to watch. (Also: work)
Did they sing the Horst-Wessel-Lied?
goblue72
@bluehill: agree in part, but I also think we need to stop infantilizing Trump. We just wind up massively underestimating him.
Because at the end of the day, the baboon won. He beat Ms. Perfect. He beat the “most prepared to be President candidate ever”. He beat the combined Clinton and Obama machine. And he did it by winning Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania – three states that a Republican should NEVER have a snowball’s chance in Hades of ever winning. And he came within a whisker of taking Minnesota. (And lets be clear, those 4 states have been a horroshow for the Democrats at the state level for awhile. The rot has been there for quite some time. Its just now reached the head.)
Maybe its time to stop thinking of our opponent as a caricature, and start respecting him as the guy who whipped our asses. Respect doesn’t mean agree, support or honor. But it does mean accepting he isn’t a fool and he is good at some things. Figuring out what his strengths are. And like Bill Belichick, taking away those strengths and forcing him to play to his weaknesses.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@goblue72: especially if you’re the kind of moron who calls for the assassination of cops, and casually flings around the word “retard” as a cheap insult. What would “Jerry” and all those progressive legislators you totally really honest-and-for-true work with so intimately think, Dwight?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@goblue72:
What’s the difference between an Anarchist and a Libertarian GoBlue? The answer $40K a year. Of course an Anarchist understand Trump better than any Liberal does.
Mike G
So there will be a special office to assist victims of crime-by-immigrants, but tough shit to any others because your suffering isn’t readily exploitable to scare Ma and Pa Nebraska.
And the feds still won’t bother to track the number of people killed by cops.
kindness
The only thing missing to make it a complete NAZI ripoff was Trump introducing Ivanka’s new black leather boots & hat ansamble.