— Schooley (@Rschooley) May 31, 2017
It's really slow going, but tonight we had a mini-breakthrough, and we're finally making some progress. #covfefe #realDonaldTrump #logogram pic.twitter.com/P54xvXJJaC
— Andrew Long (@andrewlong166) May 31, 2017
Someone made this#Covfefe pic.twitter.com/XDzvZKQtav
— Rabih Alameddine (@rabihalameddine) May 31, 2017
Sometimes ya gotta laugh, just to allay the pain, however briefly.
Apart from SSDD, what’s on the agenda for the day?
When the Nordic prime ministers are openly mocking #PresidentTrump and the #Saudis .. pic.twitter.com/6G1iOlf2qK
— Steffen (@TVMaury) May 29, 2017
.@Bencjacobs’ broken glasses are going to the @Newseum https://t.co/AOht8mEbA2
— Kelsey Sutton (@kelseymsutton) May 30, 2017
Betty Cracker
So who will get Trump’s rose today, the earth or the sun?
BlueDWarrior
Oh boy I can’t wait to hear what JoeScar has to say to tut-tut HRC, as she deigns to speak of the election and not taking full and total blame for losing and then announcing she is going to spend the rest of her life in a monastery.
Because honestly, I think that is what some of these people (both on camera, in print, and online) want out of her. And maybe taking Chelsea with her so they don’t have to think of the Clintons anymore.
*sigh*
raven
@BlueDWarrior: He’s pretty busy hammering trump and the pukes.
Arclite
So will they be arresting Gianforte for assault? I guess it’s good that he wasn’t black, or he’d have been shot dead.
Quinerly
@BlueDWarrior:
I wanted to slap Ruth Marcus yesterday when she was slamming HRC on the afternoon MTP. Michael Steele actually defended Clinton on her misogyny claim. The two privileged white women (Marcus and a much younger woman…didn’t catch her name) on the panel and Chuck Todd just didn’t get it.
BlueDWarrior
@Quinerly: Well I was riled up about it because I was having to talk around some BernieBros on another website and how there is this impression they give, where Clinton, for the sin of losing to DJT, has to spend the rest of her life in political exile, before of course saying that Bernie was right all along and the DNC need to completely acquiesce to his demands (whatever those demands even are).
It is so tiring, it is.
JPL
House of Cards season 5 was released on Tuesday, so I binged watched it over two days. There should have been a warning that watching the Underwoods f.k up America during the Trump era may be harmful to your health.
The Nameless One
After starting to get sucked in by Louise Mensch and that other guy (not Schindler, the other one) I’m hesitant to trust anyone I don’t know so I’m hoping the BJ collective can steer me true.
Is Scott Dworkin someone worth paying attention to? These documents he posted are supposed to show that Marco Rubio and Scott Walker took $1 million each from a “pro-Putin Ukrainian businessman” in the last election cycle. Are they real? If they are, are those donations legal and why are they only coming out now?
https://twitter.com/funder/status/867114045266165760
https://twitter.com/funder/status/867110768029949953
Kansi
So glad to hear we are giving the Russian spies their cozy compounds back. “Come back home. All is forgiven.”
Mustang Bobby
@The Nameless One: In theory it wouldn’t surprise me in either case, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it, and I’m in Florida.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Aleta
I like this one:
Al Franken: “A ‘covfefe’ is a Yiddish term for ‘I gotta go to bed now’”
satby
Good morning? ?
Seriously, who knew the entire nation should have had training in how to deal therapeutically with chaotic mental illness in our leaders? It’s just exhausting to hear or read news these days. Brain-numbing assaults daily.
Aleta
@rikyrah: Morning!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
BlueDWarrior
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: If anyone thought that this week as been somewhat light on the bombshells vis a vis Russia, this could just be the tide ‘draining’ before the tsunami crashes on-shore.
GregB
The right and the GOP have slipped into delusional cult of personality mania.
It is some kind of madness.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@BlueDWarrior: things are usually lite around 3 day weekends.
Kinda like how networks usually show reruns during the xmas period – not wanting to waste new programing when viewers are traveling and tied up with visiting family.
evodevo
@JPL: Yeah, we were halfway through the 3rd season on DVD and I had to take a pause … it became all too emotionally real,, as opposed to objectively instructive…..
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@rikyrah: ¡buenos dias
different-church-lady
@Quinerly: Chuck Todd is pretty much a privileged white woman himself.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@The Nameless One:
You mean Palmer Report? I’m skeptical so far. Haven’t seen any bombshells that panned out, but I admit I haven’t been paying close attention.
As for the Dworkin stuff, I have no idea. I think election law is pretty much “all donations are illegal if you’re a Democrat and legal if you’re a Republican” at this point.
Betty Cracker
@The Nameless One: I follow Dworkin, and he seems legit. He gets his material from public records almost exclusively, so you can verify it for yourself. I double-checked some info he posted about Rubio a while back, and it checked out. That said, I wish Dworkin would post links to his sources. I’d be more inclined to share it if he did. Also, and this is a personal prejudice, I find it annoying AF when every goddamned tweet says “RETWEET.”
Baud
@different-church-lady: Heh. His beard can’t hide the truth.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
You’ll never be successful on the internet with that attitude.
Amir Khalid
I’ve been thinking about why Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia went so well (aside from the unfortunate optics) and the rest of the tour went so badly. Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious, but I reckon that rather fishy deal was cut with the Saudis before he set foot on Air Force One. So he was in KSA only to do showy, reality-TV bits to camera, which he can manage if he’s already been told what to do.
In Europe, however, he was there as a national leader meeting with other national leaders. He didn’t — and still doesn’t — realise it, but he was on his last chance to prove to them that he was a peer in their company, able to represent his country and talk serious business. Having failed miserably at that with Angela Merkel and others these past few months, he failed miserably yet again, and they saw no point in hiding their disappointment and frustration. They needed and expected an America they could work with, and Trump just threw that away.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Quinerly: clinton derangement syndrome
I saw Hills whole interview last night and she had a lot of fascinating next level info on the election, on collusion, and on ingrained prejudice against women that I hadn’t heard before, yet the gossip reporters focus on eghazi.
Keith P.
Do we know yet that Trump has not had a stroke? Does he have any public appearances in the next day or 2?
Baud
@Amir Khalid: That sounds like a fair analysis.
Quinerly
@different-church-lady:
Good one!
Baud
@Keith P.: Announcing decision on Paris deal today. Ivanka wants us to stay in. We’ll see if she is good for anything except show.
Ladyraxterinok
Re glowing globe–See on youtube video of Ecco Il mondo from opera Mephistophele with Samuel Ramey. Good commentary on Trump’s attitude.
Baud
@Baud: GMA just now: Pulling out of the Paris deal “would be the biggest public split with Ivanka so far.”
Kay
This is really unusual from DeWine – suing a business, any business on behalf of consumers or the public- and an indication of how much this particular addiction has hit home with their base.
Purdue Pharma, one of the companies named, is owned by politically active conservatives:
kd bart
@David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch: But it’s so much easier to say If only she’d made a swing through Green Bay, Traverse City and Erie the last weekend
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Neither. It will go to Trump.
WereBear
I do appreciate Trump for one thing: the incredibly obvious way he lays bare all the Republican nonsense for the nonsense that it is.
See what happens when a political leader acts like all their crap is true! See how Republican propaganda claims work in the Real World! See just how stupid and clueless a person has to be in order to try it!
Baud
Betty, Al Roker says you are in for a lot of rain.
The Nameless One
Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes, Claude Taylor from Palmer Report was the other guy. Thanks. Couldn’t think of his name.
Betty Cracker: Thanks. I’ll keep an eye on him. And I agree he should post links.
sm*t cl*de
A one-A.M. tweet from el Jefe
Went on about bad press #
covfefe
.To “What were you thinking?!”
He explained he was drinking
A blend of of cough mixture and Hefe.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
@kd bart:
I said yesterday that Hillary will continue to serve as a useful litmus test showing us who had their head on straight.
Gin & Tonic
@The Nameless One:
No.
debbie
@Kay:
Ah, the power of electioneering!
Baud
@Kay: He’s running for higher office. It’s all about the campaign ad.
debbie
In regard to that top tweet, is something specific happening in 2 1/2 weeks?
bystander
@different-church-lady:
Please. No woman as talentfree as Todd would ever be held up this way. Outside of Faux news.
WaPo ran an article about how twitler brought us all together in laughter with covfefe blah blah blah. I was so happy to read the responses. Almost all were about how not funny it is and why is WaPo shilling for him.
WereBear
Urban Dictionary has your answer: covfefe.
Shalimar
@BlueDWarrior: Joe is saying the same old shit as always. Whatever HRC does or doesn’t do, it’s going to be wrong.
Specifically, “she keeps on bringing this up.” She keeps blaming x,y and z, instead of herself. This is their basic slant.
It doesn’t matter that she kept her mouth shut for months and months. It will never be time for her to talk and nothing she ever says will be considered honest.
edit: They have Rep. Joe Crowley of New York on to basically criticize her and fellow Democrats. “chair of the Democratic caucus”, they keep calling him. According to his twitter, he is going on Morning Joe to discuss the Paris Accords and TrumpRussia. They only asked him about Hillary and her “attacks” on the DNC.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Baud: Ivanka may primary him in 2020.
father pussbucket
This time for sure!
Iowa Old Lady
@Quinerly: They were seriously saying misogyny played no role in the election? Geez. Misogyny plays a role in everyday life, and it was right out in the open during the election. Trump that bitch, anyone?
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Dworkin? Legit? The guy who posted one of the stupidest tweets in the history of Twitter the other day, referring to Saakashvili as a Putin ally? Yeah, no. That’s can’t-tie-your-own-shoes-level stupid.
Baud
@Shalimar: Crowley is joining in on the criticism?
GregB
@Amir Khalid:
Trump has exposed himself as an autocrat in training.
Thumbing democracies in the eye over and over and sucking up to the shitheels of the world like Putin, Erdogan, the Saudi’s. Money and power and of course self reverence are all that matter to him. Nothing more.
It is a national shame.
PPCLI
@The Nameless One: remember when Al gore had some fundraiser, and a Chinese businessmen was somehow involved. That was one of the biggest scandals of the election. Seems like so long ago…
Kay
@Baud:
He’s always running for something. I thought we were rid of him after his Senate stint but he came back. I’m sure they’re hearing complaints from rural counties. This addiction is hugely expensive. It has cost counties hundreds of millions of dollars- most of the money comes out of county budgets- courts, child welfare, county health services. They have had to raise taxes locally to cover costs. A huge chunk of Ohio public health services money is raised by local levy.
Shalimar
@Baud: More like having the criticism pulled out of him, in a “yes Democrats have these problems, but we need reform” kind of way, but the questions were slanted to get that criticism from him. I don’t think it was the type of appearance they told him it would be.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Iowa Old Lady: I was watching last week and they had 6 men on and Mika. A 6 to 1 ratio. And Mika kept trying to enter the conversation, and she was making sense, but every time they would ignore her as if she wasn’t in the room. The vibe was definitely “Mika but out, this is man’s talk”.
The whole is show is complete misogyny.
Patricia Kayden
@BlueDWarrior: That’s Joe Scarborough’s problem. No one cares. I hold him partially accountable for the monster in the White House given all the cuddling and tongue bathing he administered to Trump during the election cycle. He can take several seats and shut the hell up. (Wish people would stop giving him good ratings).
Shalimar
@Shalimar: Crowley’s twitter has a “watch me pile on Republicans” type of announcement right before his appearance. Morning Joe is dishonest even to it’s guests. Who knew?
Baud
Good post on LGM on the whole Hillary double standard.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/06/john-mccain-refused-adhere-tradition-republican-party-never-won-election
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Kay: but, but….. he hands out cook books to the white working class
Kay
@debbie:
I’m going to a Betty Sutton meeting next week, just because I like the person who invited me. So far I think Betty Sutton looks too much like Connie Pillich :)
You know how people are – “which one is SHE?”
Baud
@Shalimar: I think it’s tough for Dems. Be polite, and we are viewed as docile and weak. Be assertive, and we are viewed as uppity and arrogant.
WereBear
@Kay: It always gets white people’s attention when it happens to white people.
I keep not getting over the stark contrast in their responses. When it happens to people in the inner cities, it’s lack of moral fiber and the response is punishment. When it happens to their kids in Anytown USA, it’s an illness which needs treatment!
Baud
@Kay: Well, I hope the lawsuit produces a good result but does not advance Dewine’s career. I’d also like a pony.
Patricia Kayden
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Secretary Clinton is on a roll!! Hilarious.
@GregB:
And he and his sleazy family are probably making a whole lot of money off Trump’s prestigious position as an occupant of the White House. Trump has perfected the art of grifting. I’ll give him credit for that.
Shalimar
@Baud: Yeah, me too. I was pissed at him for the first few minutes. The message he was sending was negative. But that was what they were trying to get out of him, and he didn’t agree with all the leading questions. His message was more of a we’re not perfect but we’re working on it message.
I feel sorry for Crowley after reading his twitter announcement. They used him, and didn’t even give him the appearance they promised to talk trash about Trump. It would have been difficult to go in unprepared for the questions like he was and do better.
Cheryl Rofer
@The Nameless One: I think Scott Dworkin is not in the Louise Mensch category, but I don’t pay much attention to him or retweet his stuff.
@Gin & Tonic: The Saakashvili tweet made it obvious that Dworkin doesn’t know much about Russia.
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: Exactly. It’s HRC rules all the way down. Thanks for the link.
aimai
@Kay: IF anyone wants to know more about purdue pharma and the opioid epidemic I recommend Dreamland, by Richard (?) quinones. Great book about the intersection of the Sackler family, purdue pharma, and the crisis in the economy that drove people to need to get disability leading to major opioid epidemics throughout the country but especially in places like Ohio where the safety net was weak.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: Sometimes I feel like the people at Balloon Juice, LGM, and Wonkette are the last remaining decent people on the planet.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Missed that one and can’t vouch for his “analysis” in general, but when he posts financial info, it appears to come from legit sources and has always checked out when I’ve done my own research. Which admittedly has not been often.
WereBear
@aimai: Checking that out, thanks.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Baud: exactly. there is no one more conventionally unlikable than the stiff, snobbish, robotic, inauthentic Willard Mitten Romney. And yet the DC media treats Mr. 47%’s blathering with respect and deference; never requiring him to issue mea culpas for his mistakes.
Patricia Kayden
Looks like Jared Kushner was always sleazy. Perhaps that’s why he was attracted to Ivanka “Daughter of Grifting Donald” Trump in the first place. Birds of a feather and all that.
Kay
@WereBear:
This is 100% true. They have no defense as far as I’m concerned. 100% race-based.
I went to a continuing legal seminar on it where the prosecutor presenting kept saying “these are kids from nice families” or things to that effect over and over. It was incredible how blatant it was. She’s literally a moron so it wasn’t surprising from her, but still. I was sitting next to a state representative so I made sure to bring up that this was a specific, targeted marketed and sales plan which caused him to defend free enterprise. He’s a fraud. I knew him and his wife before he ran for office and if they’re “pro-life conservatives” they coulda fooled me.
The thing about it is they’re full of shit and they know it. These are not “kids from nice families”. They’re mostly poor white people, the same people who are always the underclass in white, rural counties. This is ABOUT them being white. This distinction they’re making is race-based.
Aleta
@Baud: Thanks.
@Patricia Kayden: Mind boggling. And I have to say, I read a NYT story about this maneuvering some years ago. (Don’t remember K’s name.). But no negative stories about Kushner appeared during the campaign.
Bobby Thomson
@Amir Khalid:
It’s not complicated. The Saudis own him almost as much as the Russians do, and he gave them everything they asked for – including selling half the strategic petroleum reserve.
And the Europeans don’t have brain damage.
Lapassionara
@Kay: This.
Did anyone see the Lebron James tape? Even his accomplishments and wealth don’t protect him from racism.
sherparick
@WereBear: 35% is enthralled, although occasionally it breaks through that Trump will throw anyone under the bus on a whim. South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee are home to German auto plants. But apparently these are not jobs Trump is interested in saving or expanding.
debbie
@Kay:
Don’t forget the steamed babies! He’s hitting every RWNJ button.
MomSense
@Lapassionara:
I did see it. And now I am avoiding all comment sections on the subject after making the mistake of peeking at a few comments.
Deplorable.
BlueDWarrior
@Lapassionara: People desperately don’t want to be confronted with the fact that their own whitewashing of history will never, EVER absolve them of the guilt of what is done to their fellow man in the current day.
The only time the unvarnished truth of what it was like to be a Person of Color can be told when it is told to shut someone up about the plight of their descendants.
“Well at least you aren’t being lynched at high noon, so who cares if someone vandalizes your mansion?”
Kay
@Lapassionara:
I don’t follow sports but I love LeBron James for one reason- he gives kids bikes. So much of philanthropy is “I know what’s good for you, here’s your broccolli”. Bikes are a gift. Just pure, no strings attached fun. They deserve something frivolous and purely joyful.
Another Scott
@debbie: I haven’t clicked the link, but the debt ceiling deadline is coming up faster than the Treasury projected (because tax revenue is lower than projected) and Congress has a bunch of recesses coming up. They have the justified fear that things will be harder after the recess because they’re going to get screamed at by their constituents back home again.
The Teabaggers saying they won’t accept a “clean” increase in the debt limit has a bunch of people worried that Ryan might have to compromise with the Democrats to pass a bill. (The Horroooorrrrrr!!111)
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@MomSense:
I made the mistake of reading comments on a news report about whoever hung a noose inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Quite a few commenters claimed (with no evidence of course) that the noose was left by a liberal to frame conservatives.
MomSense
@germy:
Oh yeah. The comments on the noose (wasn’t it the second one??) are guaranteed deplorable. The comments are post racial society mythbusters.
MomSense
@debbie:
Steamed babies? With lemongrass and star anise? What is that even about?
rikyrah
@Aleta:
Senator Franken was good on LarryO last night.
Josie
@Lapassionara: I did see it. It made me sad to see how restrained he was and how even his wealth and acclaim don’t protect him from the pain of racism. His mention of Emmett Till almost made me cry.
Lapassionara
@Kay: Yes. He knows, he remembers, and his actions show a generous heart.
I heard an African-American federal court judge tell the story of his years in the army during WWII. He was stationed in MS, and he saw German Pow’s getting a hot breakfast inside a warm room, while he and the rest of his company were required to pick up their food at an outside window. I felt such shame then.
ThresherK
@MomSense: “Post-Racism: Mythbusters” is a term I should have been using (with the appropriate sneer at them*) for several years now.
(*Not the guys from the actual TV show, of course.)
Frankensteinbeck
@BlueDWarrior:
No. They want her to have never existed, like they want Obama to have never existed. They want to never have to think about a woman or black person in charge. It is exactly like how conservatives want to never have to think about queers.
@Amir Khalid:
Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia went well because they are paying him. Just like he now gets along great with China, once they granted him and his family (I.E., him) hundreds of millions of dollars in business deals.
japa21
@Baud: No, don’t get carried away. Would be more appropriate to say “most of the people”. You make it sound like all the people here are decent.
glory b
@WereBear: Yeah, but I thought the Kansas experiment under Brownback showed us this already.
The MSM didn’t report enough on what a disaster that was/is I guess.
Frankensteinbeck
@glory b:
The vast majority of the MSM believe in conservative policies, especially giving everything to the rich and punishing the poor- sorry, I mean ‘entitlement reform.’ They would rather sweep all failures of these policies under the rug.
glory b
@Kay: I love him for another reason, he has a major project involving rehabbing homes in the low income neighborhoods of Cleveland.
I understand he’s become a major force in improving these areas.
I had been afraid of how he would turn out, going to the NBA at such a young age. But, as my folks say, it seems his mama raised him right.
manyakitty
@Baud: At least it’s a safe bet.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Glad you posted this. Totally sleazeball
rikyrah
@Kay:
So much sympathy for these addicts.
Remember when we wanted sympathy for addicts in the inner cities.
manyakitty
@Kay: A good friend of mine works for his foundation. Among other things, she’s helping to develop the curriculum for a trauma-informed public magnet they’re starting for Akron Public Schools. He is making a huge difference around here.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
it wasn’t just him. They wondered if it was an exaggeration. They said – it can’t be THAT BAD..after all, these folks lived through Shrub.
Then, they realized, it.is.worse.than.Shrub.
Shrub at least surrounded himself with professionals. They had no morals, but they were professionals, and their professional class could talk to our professional class.
Dolt45 has nothing but incompetent clowns..which is why Europe chucked up the DEUCES to America, after 70 years.
rikyrah
@bystander:
keep bringing receipts.
rikyrah
@WereBear:
Uh huh
Uh huh
rikyrah
Kay,
your favorite Attorney General White Citizens Council lied AGAIN to the Senate about Russian meetings
hovercraft
@Amir Khalid:
The arms sale was all finalized before he got there, which to be fair is standard, so that the president can announce something big when he gets there. There were stories about Jared playing hardball with defense CEO’s to get the Saudi’s a better deal. The Saudi’s and the GCC countries were glad to see the back of Obama for a number of reasons, first the Iran deal, only the Israelis hated the deal more than the Saudi’s, leaving aside the Shia Sunni issue, as long as Iran is a pariah, the Saudi’s are the only game in town, and they get away with a lot of shit because we need them. Secondly they feel Obama betrayed them by supporting the Arab Spring generally, and the uprising against Mubarak in particular, which leads into the third thing, his focus on human rights, which led him to refuse to sell some of the arms in the deal Twitler signed because they were being used in Yemen against civilians. That’s the matchbook version.
They like the rest of the world know that the way to Twitler’s shriveled up pathetic heart is flattery, so they blew smoke up his ass, and got him to laud them and the other GCC countries who actually fund ISIL and AQ, while condemning Iran. They won bigly at very little cost.
ETA: I think the press reports about treating him like a six year old with a short attention span pissed him off from the get go, and then the images of the Obama-Merkel lovefest, with that huuuge adoring crowd pushed him over the edge. After that he threw a tantrum, and it was all down hill.
LurkerNoLonger
@rikyrah: I’m beginning to see a pattern. He’s a lying little motherfucker.
Aleta
@Kay:
rikyrah
@Lapassionara:
he was so elegant is his speech, and so strong.
People wonder why, even though there is a Black middle-class, why Black people tend to vote as a group. And, it’s about race. We can’t separate race from economics, because we know, it doesn’t matter the size of your bank account, the color of your skin matters most in America.
Chris Rock’s bit about how none of you White guys would exchange places with me..and, I’m RICH…always hits home.
Which is why this insistence by some, on the left, to push this economic populism bullshyt grates the nerves.
I don’t know if the video still exists on youtube, but, it’s one for me that haunts.
By Mr. Bougie himself – Lawrence Otis Graham, and why he and his wife have their children dressed in a sort of ‘ uniform’.
when that segment appeared on Nightline, a lot of people slammed him. I wasn’t one of them, because the last 30 seconds, seared me, when this very accomplished man explained why he did all of this.
He was past the point of wanting his children to be treated the same as their peers. He just wanted to keep them ALIVE.
For all the economic populists…find me a White Couple with FOUR HARVARD DEGREES like Graham and his wife…that express that level of desperation to want to protect their children..
and, I might begin to listen to you.
OGLiberal
@Baud: PR stunt to make Ivanka look good, like a true moderating influence, not the cold, heartless grifter she is in reality. Exxon shareholders just voted in support of the Paris Accords – that will play much more in a decision to stay in than any “Ivanka cares” BS.
Tenar Arha
@Iowa Old Lady: There’s this weird disconnect I’ve noticed in people around 5-10 years younger than my age and older. It’s a combination of refusal to believe in and yet insistence that structural barriers aren’t insurmountable for most people.
My aunts and my mother had to fight so hard for respect and advancement (Hidden Figures level pushing on doors that were closed in their faces). It seems almost like being ungrateful to criticize the invisible doors that are still there. I mean we’re the generation that grew up to Free To Be You And Me FFS! Yet there’s many people in my cohort who cannot live with the dichotomy of the direct legal barriers being gone but still having to be twice as good to succeed. It’s like they blind themselves to the misogyny in order to live with it.
Anyway, my generation seems to have had three choices:
1. Pretend it doesn’t effect us, and fall back on “it’s on the individual”
2. Lean on gender essentialism (men do this…, women do that… stuff) for why we still don’t make the same $, or advance at the same rates
3. Systems do need to change to prevent misogyny (racism, xenophobia etc) from making our choices for us
The younger women are than me, the more likely they are to admit that #3 is true.
(ETA I realize this only really applies to white feminists because as far as I can tell from reading and talking with people, black feminists never forgot about structural barriers).
hovercraft
@Baud: Thanks for the link, can we get it to democrats and have them read it to every fucking asshole bitching about Clinton?
Aleta
Beautiful slow motion bobcat jumping over a wide stream. https://twitter.com/DickKingSmith/status/869936953889890304
Chet Murthy
@hovercraft: In that thread, one comment in particular really stands out — really, really worth reading and pondering. Made me think about my niece, and how my sister probably had a difficult conversation about the election with her.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
Race is the defining issue of American politics, because Republicans made it their defining issue. Of course blacks can see it. Whites who wish the debate were about something else (like economic inequality) need to accept that we don’t live in that world. I didn’t want to see it, and the truth punched me in the face during Obama’s presidency. The last straw there was the freakout over a Coca Cola commercial with multi-racial people singing the national anthem. Christ, how can it be more obvious than that that half the country is freaking the fuck out that brown people exist?
rikyrah
The Democrats Need a Paradigm Shift
by Martin Longman
May 31, 2017 4:56 PM
The Democrats seem to be caught on flypaper and unable to get out of an infinite loop of debate over whether they should focus on the needs and desires of their progressive base or the needs and desires of the more working class voters they lost in 2016 and which cost them election. You can see them flailing away anywhere you look, on Twitter or Facebook or on cable television and in newspaper columns. Cathleen Decker captures it nicely in her article for the Los Angeles Times:
rikyrah
Quick Takes: Clinton On How Trump Might Have Coordinated With Russians
A roundup of news that caught my eye today.
by Nancy LeTourneau
May 31, 2017 6:52 PM
* Earlier today I pointed to one of the areas of inquiry the FBI is pursuing with respect to Jared Kushner – the fact that he managed the voter micro targeting work done by Cambridge Analytica. The question this raises is whether or not he cooperated with Russia to micro target voters—specifically in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—by sharing data with them? While not mentioning Kushner in particular, today at the Recode Conference in Southern California, Hillary Clinton gave some examples of how that might have played out. In other words…she gets it.
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/05/31/quick-takes-clinton-on-how-trump-might-have-coordinated-with-russians/
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/31/17
New subpoenas in House Trump Russia probe, with an extra twist
Jonathan Landay, D.C. national security correspondent for Reuters, talks about a new set of subpoenas issued by the House Intelligence Committee, some of Trump associates, and some by supposedly recused Devin Nunes to Obama era officials.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/31/17
Trump may reverse Obama ejection, return Russian compounds: WaPo
Adam Entous, national security reporter for the Washington Post, talks about his reporting that Donald Trump is considering the return of Russian facilities in the U.S. just months after former President Obama ejected Russians from the compounds as punishment for interfering in the 2016 election.
Aleta
@OGLiberal: She’s a stupid flat character with a fixed role in this fucking fake reality drama. To the Trumps and their communications directors (Jared just hired his from Hollywood) we’re a captive TV audience. They think their job is to improve the narratives that play over top of the money flowing.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
A lot of things cost us the election. Chasing the votes of racists who will never vote for us seems like a terrible use of resources compared to, say, fighting voter suppression.
Because they have no intention of voting Democrat, and nothing we say will change that. Heaven knows we spoke directly to their supposed issues, and they continue to pretend we didn’t.
“Talking about bigotry makes me uncomfortable.”
…who will never vote for us anyway, because ‘liberal social issues’ are everything except making minorities shut up and let white people decide everything.
IE, were uncomfortable that race and sexism even got mentioned.
IE, even mentioning race and sexism is totally unacceptable, no matter your economic positions.
“Stop admitting bigotry exists and only focus on white people’s issues!”
…sorry, Rikyah. You got me started there, and I get steamed about this.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: He needs to STFU . I’m so GD Dem bashing. His commenters have frried his brain. Know it’s dead thread but I had to vent.
Citizen Alan
@PPCLI:
Had Gore become president, there is serious talk that he would be impeached solely because at one point he used the wrong phone to talk to a Chinese donor.
No One You Know
@Frankensteinbeck: I want to distill that last comment into my next Democratic Party survey. I think your spot-on. Not because I want to treat the white working class as hopelessly Republican, but because failing to see that done people insist on not seeing other humans as people violates who we are. IMHO.
JDM
I finally got it. “Covfefe” is shorthand for “news coverage that hurt my delicate fee-fees”.
Applejinx
@aimai:
Thank you. Even one little passing acknowledgement is better than nothing. Think about that one for a minute. Have you gone on disability, and if so have you gone on disability because there was no other option (barring, I suppose, moving across country somehow and hoping you’d get luckier somewhere else)?
In no way am I suggesting racism isn’t a primary problem and a total crisis, because it obviously is. But it’s nice to see a brief passing mention of what lost us the Presidency, expressed as a problem and possible bad thing.
Captain C
@rikyrah:
Whatever else you could say about Dick Cheney, the man was a highly competent bureaucrat.
tinkletoes
@raven: and mika
Bonnie
Jacobs, I hope, will send his hospital bill, glasses bill, etc., to Gianforte.