From the Guardian:
… In attendance tonight is Carryn Owens, the widow of a US Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens, who died in a raid in Yemen in January, shortly after Trump’s inauguration…
Carryn Owens is in tears as the Chamber gives her and her late husband a standing ovation.
Trump notes that the clapping just “broke a record” because it went so long.
“Ryan laid down his life for his friends, for his country, and for our freedom –- we will never forget Ryan,” says Trump…
Earlier today:
On Fox, Trump responds to criticism of father of Navy SEAL killed in Yemen raid,says "this was a mission that was started before I got here" pic.twitter.com/m3YbN0D8zF
— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) February 28, 2017
Trump passes blame for Yemen raid to his generals: ‘They lost Ryan’ – The Washington Post https://t.co/gM3IOOGig8
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 28, 2017
US officials to @NBCNews: contrary to WH claims, Yemen raid which cost life of Navy SEAL has so far yielded no significant intelligence
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 28, 2017
Tom Hamill
Agreed, pretty tasteless from Quaaluder-in-Chief.
Baud
I guess I’m curious if the widow believes in Trump or felt like she had to be there because the president asked her to honor her husband.
Geeno
*wretching repeatedly*
*dry heaves*
zhena gogolia
Pigs.
Renie
trump has no class at all
he gets her husband killed in a reckless raid and then tries to score points by bringing her to his speech
what a pig
JPL
@Baud: After a loss, it’s easier to believe. imo
Lizzy L
My prediction: the Villagers are going to love this speech; they’re going to say it was “presidential.”
Yeah, no.
Wag
So glad that I’m not watching the travesty in the House.
The Thin Black Duke
Leave it to Donald to turn a soldier’s tragic death into reality show bullshit.
SFAW
Scumbag
amk
@Baud: His father didn’t and called out the cowardly pos.
lamh36
Donald Trump using the death of a Navy Seal and that Seal’s widow as an applause line, when he signed off the raid, just because he was goaded into it by “his generals”, SHOULD PISS OFF EVERY MAN OR WOMAN WHO CURRENTLY SERVE, OR WHO HAS SERVED IN OUR MILITARY!
tasteless as fuq!
Omnes Omnibus
Klassy.
Patricia Kayden
Trump has zero class so blaming soldiers for their own deaths seems par for the course. Can you imagine if President Obama had said the same about any soldier who died on his watch?
hilts
Trump is a man without a brain and without a conscience. There are no limits to his depravity.
amk
Hopefully the ‘generals’ will push back vigorously against any future foolish misadventure put forward by this scum of a coward.
hovercraft
@Baud:
I suspect that like the majority of our armed forces and vets, she is a supporter. She is probably steeped in military culture and therefore surrounded by trumpsters. If I am mistaken, I apologize to her, but far too many military people are still enamored with W and now Twitler, it boggles the mind.
Grung_e_Gene
You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else’s life. They’re plenty loud and they talk all the time.
hilts
The cast of Fox and Friends should be arrested for impersonating journalists.
Major Major Major Major
Trump bragged about how long they clapped for her???
schrodingers_cat
@hilts: Don’t forget the Republicans that enabled him. They voted for him, the officeholders and so called leadership could have stopped him but didn’t. He is their creation.
Steeplejack
Reposted from downstairs:
Fuck you, Tweety. The big moment of the speech for him was Karen Owens, the SEAL widow. Of course. He probably splooged in his $2,000 suit. What a fucking tool.
Mike in NC
@hovercraft: From my own experience, lots of military people have no problem embracing authoritarianism.
lamh36
Ya’ll…I swear I didn’t watch the speech. I BARELY even came in at the last few bits on twitter.
But that damn Ryan Owens widow shit…done pissed me da fuq off.
I had finally gotten rid of the seething anger that had been holding on to ever since last November…but that anger coming back after this bullshit..
Ugh…i need a woosah break…so I don’t turn that anger onto Widow Ryan…she did recently lose her husband…but UGH
http://68.media.tumblr.com/8027f3ef0b83acd4a7c88d3a11d4d2ed/tumblr_mwltvp1C4z1t0i9qbo1_400.gif
Steeplejack
Okay, now MSNBC switched to Steve Beshear giving the Democrats’ response.
He’s hitting his Crackro-American background hard. Bonus points for “my dad and granddad were Babdist preachers.” (Emphasis mine.) That’s Southern!
The Thin Black Duke
And unfortunately, I have a sick feeling that Ryan Owens won’t be the last soldier that Donald gets killed.
JWR
@Lizzy L:
Such has been the reaction of PBS’ David Brooks and Amy Walters, both Villagers to the core.
JPL
Did they cover the democratic response?
hilts
@schrodingers_cat:
I will NEVER forget and I will NEVER forgive those rat-fucking bastards like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. They deserve to burn in Hell.
Elizabelle
Miami Herald had a long and very good article on this this weekend, with interview with Bill Owens, father of “Ryan” Owens. Photos and background on Ryan, who always wanted to serve in the military.
Slain SEAL’s dad wants answers: ‘Don’t hide behind my son’s death’
Patricia Kayden
@Renie: She shouldn’t have shown up. I gather that Trump’s plan to increase military spending by over $50 billion means many more wars and many more dead and damaged soldiers in our future. Huge sigh.
Omnes Omnibus
@JWR: There is a reason I am watching Esquire network’s Best Bars in America.”
skerry
I think making Carryn Owens the emotional centerpiece of the speech opens the Yemen operation up to more questions and the need to find out what really happened. Puts more fuel on that fire, if you will.
mouse tolliver
@JPL: Yes. They said the Democratic response was terrible. Even Rachel. Tweety & Co. are mocking it.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: I love Mr. Owens’ reaction to Trump’s exploitation of his dead son. Much respect to him.
Yet another jeff
Really, Van Jones??
Patricia Kayden
@mouse tolliver: Sigh. Trump has given Democrats so much material to work with.
hilts
@Steeplejack:
Chris Matthews is a daily insult to broadcast journalism. He should have been sent into retirement years ago.
Baud
@mouse tolliver: Did you see it? Was it bad?
Quinerly
Van Jones says this is the moment Trump became presidential. God help us. In related news, Rick Santorum is a bit frothy. He loved the speech.
lamh36
So basically Sam, what your saying is since he didn’t get up there and literally grab a woman by the P&^*y makes this an effective speech…gotcha
hilts
@Yet another jeff:
I was going to ask you about Van Jones, but I just got the answer from another post.
Yet another jeff
@mouse tolliver:
I found the sound of a southern Democrat to be the perfect cure for my headache from Trump clapping in the microphone.
SFAW
@skerry:
Yeah, the Republican truth-seekers in the House and Senate will be all over that, I’m sure. But only if it is “uncovered” that Hillary green-lighted the operation.
Adam L Silverman
Yet another jeff
@Quinerly:
Yeah…that’s goddamn disappointing.
OGLiberal
Cillizza started fellating him on Twitter about 1/2 hour ago and hasn’t stopoed. Retweeted some Politico dude who said Trump’s shameless use of a dead soldier was “Reaganesque”. I’m going to fucking vomit.
Steeplejack
@mouse tolliver:
Yeah, just got done watching it on MSNBC. First pundit—didn’t see who—pointed out that it was a 72-year-old ex-governor, rather than, say Kamala Harris, the Castro brothers or anyone who might plausibly represent the future of the party. Sad!
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Applause for her is really applause for his decision to authorize the mission.
@Mike in NC:
It’s understandable in one sense, they volunteer for an institution that relies on people following orders in order to function normally. On the other hand, you would think they’d value presidents and representatives who do more than just pay lip service to their sacrifices, and who make judicious decisions about when to commit them to dangerous situations.
Yet another jeff
By the way, what was up with Karen Pence wearing a Democratic women white jacket?
hilts
@Quinerly:
Van Jones has lost his goddamn mind. What a fucking disgrace.
amk
@skerry: your expectations from the current press corpse are already dead.
The Lodger
@OGLiberal: It was Reaganesque, just not in a good way.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: Since it wouldn’t be so silent if it were a Dem, I’m not going to take that tweet seriously.
mouse tolliver
@Baud: I thought the substance of the Democratic response was on point. Called out Trump for his lies about draining the swamp. Pointed all the people who’ll be left in the lurch by RnR. He even worked the word “indivisible” into his speech. For the optics Dems did exactly what the Villagers have said they should do by getting someone who speaks to white working class issues. (The former gov.of Kentucky.) But now they’re mocking them for doing exactly that. I bet if he was a Republican Tweety would’ve had a thrill up his leg as he imagined the smell of Aquavelva.
Yet another jeff
@hilts:
Clearly…apparently Trump is holding one of his family members hostage.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
I thought Beshear was mediocre at best.
Quinerly
@Yet another jeff:
I’m stuck with CNN because of traveling. I’m going to barf between Santorum, Axelrod, Van Jones….Jennifer Granholm is no help either…disgusting.
amk
dems would have been better off walking away from this dreadful spectacle.
Steeplejack
@SFAW:
Thank you for “green-lighted” instead of “green-lit.” Can now send my inner pedant to bed early.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
The desire of the media to normalize this fuckface is disheartening, and I think reveals that we’re well and truly fucked. Like it or not, this is the country we are – the white plurality is unrepentant and hateful; Donald Trump is the national id, insofar as they’re concerned.
I’m going to quote Jeremiah Wright – God Damn America. We are going to deserve everything that is going to happen – the economic location, wreckage, war deaths, terror attacks. I just hope that it reaches deeply into suburbia and hurts and hurts again. I want pasty, puffy paper pushing “heroes” of the financial service and insurance industries to fucking starve and to watch their families lose everything.
It took that in the 30s to break the jingoistic ego – it will take that now.
Hopefully, the end of the United States brings about a better country – some sort of North American Union built from the remaining structures plus Canada and Mexico, focusing on a more democratic model. We’ll need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, too, after a few dozen well publicized trials and revolutionary sentences.
Quinerly
@hilts:
Tongue bath happening at CNN. Van Jones and David Axelrod’s in deep competition.
celticdragonchick
@Steeplejack: Steve Schmidt. He is fucking high.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: I did not watch any of the speech, any of the runup to it, any of the aftermath. No idea what the paid mouths are saying.
It’s serene.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: The response is generally thought as not a positive thing for one’s political future.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OGLiberal:
Can somebody catch Cilizza outside some bar sometime and have a private “chat”?
SFAW
@Steeplejack:
Here to serve.
Yet another jeff
@Quinerly:
Yeah…feeling all Invasion of the Body Snatchers right now.
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
Yep.
hovercraft
@Quinerly:
Van Jones has been hit or miss ever since he was pushed out of the WH. I remember reading somewhere that he was bitter about being pushed out, he felt Obama should have fought harder for him. I didn’t watch the diatribe and I’m not watching the autopsy either, but they have all been desperate for a new story line, and I guess tonight has given them one. Twitler finally comes into his own and becomes presidential. So 2/28/2017, the day Twitler became president. It’ll be interesting to see if the last 41 days get washed down the memory hole and only bitter twisted liberals and haters are petty enough to dwell on them.
FlipYrWhig
Remember when Chris Matthews’s whole take on Trump was that he was the dove and Hillary was the hawk? What a disgrace.
Yet another jeff
@Elizabelle:
Envy.
Tazj
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It’s very difficult not to be livid at the tv pundits. After everything 45 has said and done, all the chaos he has caused, all it takes is one speech and they are thrilled.
Baud
@FlipYrWhig: That wasn’t just Matthews.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle:
Been away from all of it for awhile. Marble Canyon Lodge very quiet, kinda funky (in a good way)..old fashioned tv. Yes, I turned it on. After 5 nights on a dry Navajo Reservation, I got serious with a chicken fried steak with green chile pepper gravy and a 6 pack of Modelo. Should have stuck with the food and drink and not taken the tv bait. Killed my chill.
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: I didn’t know you were Babdist.
hovercraft
@Baud:
THIS.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: I spent the entire Obama Administration, as well as two years of the Bush 43 Administration, either on contracts or term appointments/civilian mobilization. I never once heard my colleagues in uniform publicly badmouth either President when something went wrong and they thought the President should have known better or done something else instead.
tobie
Didn’t watch the speech but it sounds like the mere fact that he was able to read from the teleprompter and to cast himself as the preserver of Ryan Owen’s memory–even after sending him to his death–was enough to make all the pundits go ga-ga. Take heart…he’ll tweet something stupid in the next few days and show he’s manifestly unfit for the office.
Renie
the talking heads are ridiculous; the bar is so low the fact he didn’t vomit on himself and rant & rave makes him look good
?BillinGlendaleCA
@tobie:
As sure as the sun rising in the east.
Steeplejack
@Adam L Silverman:
Ha! My antecedents are worse: Church of Christ and Seventh Day Adventist. But no snake-handlers (that I know of).
Steeplejack
I’d still like to get a reading from someone else re the vocal cheering that went with the applause. Is that a new thing (which it seemed to me), or have I (blessedly) forgotten previous GOP addresses?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Isn’t CoC a liberal child of the Congregationalists?
hilts
@Quinerly: @Tazj:
Cable news has devolved into a super-sized steaming pile of excrement. There isn’t any person I can think of on CNN or MSNBC who is capable of providing any meaningful insight.
Hearing about all the pathetic pundit responses to Trump’s speech makes me grateful for my decision to cancel my cable subscription earlier this month.
@FlipYrWhig: Over the summer, Chris Matthews was on Morning Blowjob to plug his idiotic Trump documentary and he practically had an orgasm when he started describing how impressed he was with the skyscrapers that trump had erected in NY.
Matthews is a fucking moron and I have no idea how he ever got chosen to be aide for Tip O’Neill or Jimmy Carter.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think so.
I grew up going to military services, which were generic Protestant. I would describe my current orientation as somewhere around the intersection of “Buddhist psychology” and “generic mysticism.”
ETA: The military also had (has) Jewish and Catholic (and probably now Muslim) services, but all the Protestant denominations were lumped together. Didn’t mean to imply that the military had only Protestant services.
Lyrebird
@Omnes Omnibus: UCC (United CoC) is what the modern and open-minded religious descendents of New England congregationalists have become, plus a bunch of other groups less into hierarchy than Lutheran/Methodist/Episcopalian types.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: I am “baptized Lutheran but i don’t want to upset people.”
Timurid
So the media is repping this as Gettysburg Address II and the GOP caucus was cheering like they were at the Superbowl… so I take it the elite mood is back to ‘All In.’
dww44
@mouse tolliver: I actually disagree and I’ve long since lost any respect for Steve Schmidt’s journalistic vibes. He’s an angry partisan. Nothing more there. Look at his eyes and his general demeanor. He’s obviously got an axe to grind these days. Neither fun nor rewarding to watch or listen.
He was critiquing the Democrats as being the party of the olds and that putting up Steve Beshear, age 72 and from that small state of Kentucky, you know, instead of a Cory Booker or a Kamala Harris was a stupid move. I personally believe the motive was to spur the opposition to ACA repeal by giving Beshear a platform to argue for its benefits. I thought he did a passably good job at that.
Besides, opposition speeches to SOTU addresses are frequently career killers for the younger party members of the out of power party. In this case why not use it to spur support for the Affordable Care Act and give credit to one of the governors who provided care for the citizens of his state.
FWIW, Rachel likes Schmidt and was obviously taking the silly route and not the thoughtful one when not pushing back against his putdown of the Democratic response. Wanting to be liked seems to matter a lot to her when she sits on those MSNBC panels where she should be the voice of the liberal left as a counter weight to the mostly center right ones there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: @Steeplejack: No biggie. It isn’t important to me. I am aggie.
Lyrebird
@Omnes Omnibus: PS thanks for the Bully video, in case I forgot to say so before. Perfect mood for responding to the bilge spewed in the halls of congress this evening.
ETA going to be responsible and close my laptop.
Losing sleep doesn’t help me support the family or the resistance…
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: @Omnes Omnibus: At one point at USAWC I had the garrison chaplain (Catholic priest), one of his deputies (Protestant), and one of the chaplain in the resident course (also Protestant) auditing (the first two) and taking (the last one) my elective. All of them are great people and good friends and colleagues. And I was always on the faculty team with the chaplain on the faculty.
Darkrose
@dww44: Joy Anne Reid pointed out that the people likely to be watching that shitshow are Trump voters, not the Democratic base, so having a white guy who was the former governor of Kentucky talking to them made sense.
Omnes Omnibus
@Lyrebird: You are welcome.
FlipYrWhig
@dww44: Democrats suck because they don’t reach out to white people in country. And also because they do!
tobie
@Darkrose: Joy, as always, comes to the rescue with the sharp insight. Why doesn’t she have a prime time show? I’d be so happy if MSNBC gave her Chris Matthews’ slot.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Heh, that sounds Keilloresque.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): Moi? I don’t believe or disbelieve.
Darkrose
@tobie: I know! I’ve only been watching her recently because my sleep schedule is screwed up. She should be on prime time, but I guess there are too many blonde white women *NBC needs to find room for.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Chris Hayes was bragging about his ratings on twitter today– He’s Number Two!. I guess the suits at MSNBC forgot what happens to liberal TV ratings when a RWNJ is in charge.
ETA: And Joy Reid has been suffering no fools in her stories or on her set lately. Like a non-pompous, more concise, smiling version of Olbermann. You think they remember him?
J R in WV
@Quinerly:
They don’t care if we white folks bring beer with us, as long as we’re discrete with it, and keep it to ourselves. So it isn’t as dry as all that. But we try to respect the principle of the thing too.
Neldob
Listened to some NPR show this am and they were saying ‘T was amazing, he sounded like a president’. One of them was a Democrat supposedly. While the bumper sticker on the truck next to me said “Trump that bitch”. I then donated to Ossof in Georgia.