Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

“They all knew.”

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

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

Giving up is unforgivable.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

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

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Russiagate Thread: 400-Pound Guy on A (Beauty Pageant) Bed

Russiagate Thread: 400-Pound Guy on A (Beauty Pageant) Bed

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With the Trump crime cartel, sooner or later, it always comes back to dirty money. Kudos to the Washington Post, “Donald Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer during presidential campaign after being promised information helpful to father’s effort”:

… In his statement, Trump Jr. said he was approached about the meeting by an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.

He did not name the acquaintance, but in an interview Sunday, Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who is friendly with Trump Jr., told The Washington Post that he had arranged the meeting at the request of a Russian client and had attended it along with Veselnitskaya.

Goldstone has been active with the Miss Universe pageant and works as a manager for Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star whose father is a wealthy Moscow developer who sponsored the pageant in the Russian capital in 2013.

Goldstone would not name the client. He said Veselnitskaya wanted to discuss ways that Trump could be helpful about the Russian government’s adoption issue should he be elected president…

Veselnitskaya’s client roll includes individuals and companies close to the Kremlin. She has for the past several years been a leading advocate around the world to fight Magnitsky Acts, sanctions intended to rebuke Russia for human rights abuses. The acts are named for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died under mysterious circumstances in a Moscow prison in 2009 after exposing a corruption scandal…

That evening, a film critical of the Magnitsky sanctions — and the story behind them — showed at the Newseum. On June 15, Veselnitskaya was featured on the Sputnik News website criticizing the sanctions and its leading advocate, William Browder, a financier who left Russia a decade ago amid concerns about corruption, including that exposed by Magnitsky, the lawyer and auditor he had hired.

Browder led the lobbying for the Magnitsky Act’s passage in 2012, a vote that infuriated Putin, leading the Russian leader to retaliate by halting American adoption of Russian children. The adoption issue is frequently used as a talking point by opponents of the Magnitsky Act, Browder said.

It’s all D-list infotainment until some “enemy of the state” dies while in custody…

Reader Interactions

158Comments

  2. 2.

    Nicole

    On the recommendation of a few folk here, I watched The Brainwashing of My Dad on Hulu, and it was really depressing because there’s no putting that Fox News genie back in the bottle. Very interesting viewing on techniques on how right wing media brainwashes- I was particularly struck by the bit about getting to people in a situation where they are taking it in while they are alone, which is why right wing radio is so effective- but it also just made me realize there is nothing that will get through to a large number of voters. And, of course, racism is much stronger than patriotism.

    So yeah, I read all of this stuff and can’t BELIEVE we aren’t in the streets yet, but 40 percent of the nation is being told every single day that their fellow Americans are the real traitors.

  3. 3.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    Remember there were all those Grand Juries convened and the rocket docket was getting ready to launch a thousand subpoenas and arrest warrants ? Good times. I know Watergate took two years, blah blah,sorry we ain’t got time for that.

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    So, like. OK. Does Trump and his family know anyone who is NOT Russian? I mean, this shit is getting like a political matryoshka doll. You ferret out one Russian and out pops even more Russians. Maybe it’s time to interview Sessions again, and jog his memory about attending meetings with Putin emissaries.

  5. 5.

    Kraux Pas

    Donald trump tweeted: “If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the fake news would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!

    My takeaway from this was that while Ivanka was holding his seat, Trump was giving the country away. Only behind closed doors in this instance.

  6. 6.

    NorthLeft12

    Why would anyone admit to being involved in this treasonous activity?
    I see four possibilities;
    1. The guy is as dumb as a rock and actually believes he did something good for his country or party or Deadbeat Donald.
    2. Is a gross publicity hound and just could not bear to see his name left out of public eye.
    3. Absolutely does not care about the ethical or legal problems because he has no morals whatsoever, and believes he will be politically protected against prosecution.
    4. The WP had enough intel on him and the meeting that denying it was just going to make him look worse.

    Or a combination of the above.

    BTW, I thought of another possibility…he has an off the scale level of hate and fear of Hilary Clinton that he would do anything to stop her from being President.

  7. 7.

    Roger Moore

    An important point to remember when talking about the cutoff of Russian adoptions: a major reason for adopting a baby from Russia is to guarantee it has the right racial characteristics, since there aren’t enough nice white babies up for adoption here in the USA to meet demand*. Cutting off that supply is most keenly felt by Trump’s racist supporters.

    *This is also a subtext for wanting to restrict abortion: it will force more young women to put babies up for adoption, making it easier for would-be adoptive parents to get the race and gender of baby they want.

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    If daughter sits in at G20, you can’t then say that son’s meetings have no meaning.

    — John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) July 10, 2017

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    @rikyrah:

    If daughter sits in at G20, you can’t then say that son’s meetings have no meaning.

    Nailed it. Note also: it’s not just the son but also the son-in-law who’s married to that daughter- and who is now a big shot within the administration- so he can’t claim there’s a difference because he trusts the daughter more.

  11. 11.

    MrSnrub

    Remember when Kushner wanted to set up a back channel to the Kremlin via the Russian Embassy?

    Seems like it was years ago.

    I can’t keep up.

  12. 12.

    Major Major Major Major

    I get most of my boots-on-the-ground info on what idiots think from my friends’ friends’ comments on their Facebook posts, and, apparently, trump is still “better than Killary.”

    No information was forthcoming if that particular idiot was on the left or the right.

  13. 13.

    NorthLeft12

    @Nicole:Up here in Canada, I have seen my Dad turn from a responsible, caring, and inclusive citizen, to a right winger who spews prejudice [not quite hate] and disdain for non-white immigrants and those who are poor.
    And this is from a WW2 refugee from Poland to Canada through Siberia [work camps] and Iran and Kenya and England. He seems to have a continuous mad on against PM Trudeau [he was a fan of PET] and believes the refugees are coming to Canada just for the healthcare and social assistance. I have a hard time talking to him anymore.

  14. 14.

    Yarrow

    @Brachiator:

    Maybe it’s time to interview Sessions again, and jog his memory about attending meetings with Putin emissaries.

    Sessions is a traitor. Plenty of Russian connections. They don’t even need to interview him. Have him recorded.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Expect a building boom at supermaxes to hold all the Donald minions who are going to prison

  16. 16.

    d58826

    I think it would be more accurate to say

    With the Trump crime cartel, sooner or later, it always comes back to dirty RUSSIAN money.

  19. 19.

    NorthLeft12

    @Roger Moore: I regretfully agree with your assessment regarding the popularity of Russian babies.
    I would like to believe differently, but it seems pretty obvious…and multiple personal experiences with wanna be adoptive parents.

  20. 20.

    Gretchen

    @Roger Moore: You’re right about this. I’ve been mystified about the intensity of Republicans trying to cut off access to birth control. Why would you do that? But read in concert with the surveys that show that Trump voters are more concerned with race and immigration than others, and comments on conservative blogs that explicitly say that they’re worried about whiteness being lost with all the immigration and intermarriage. Anything to have white girls have more babies. One guy actually asserted to me that it’s a “tragedy” that my white daughter is planning to marry an American-born man of Indian descent, because that will be fewer white people. They’ll have to get over it, though. Those Asians that came over here in the 60’s and 70’s are having American-born grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they’re not going away.

  22. 22.

    Hungry Joe

    I see All This (capitalized to emphasize that it includes Everything Trump) (capitalized to emphasize … ) playing out one of two ways:

    1) An unprecedented amount of shit hits an unprecedented number of fans, and the people in charge of everything — i.e., the GOP — collectively say, “So what?” and do nothing about any of it.
    2) Indictments rain down from Mueller. His back and rest of his putrescent self to a gilded wall, Trump pardons EVERYBODY — including himself.

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    Despite the 2016 attack, Trump ready to ‘move forward’ with Russia
    07/10/17 08:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    After Donald Trump’s recent skirmish with some MSNBC hosts, many were reminded of Melania Trump’s plans to combat cyber-bullying – which her husband appeared to be engaged in. Asked for comment, Melania Trump didn’t seem at all concerned about the president’s abusive behavior, saying through a spokesperson that “when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder.”

    The president does not, however, seem to apply that standard to the United States. When the country is attacked, Trump not only fails punch back 10 times harder, he also agrees to cozy up to the adversary responsible for the attack. Here was the Washington Post’s report from midday yesterday:

    President Trump vowed Sunday to “move forward in working constructively with Russia,” including forming a cybersecurity unit between the two countries, after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied any interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

    Trump’s pledge to partner with Putin on cybersecurity drew swift and stern denunciations from both Democratic and Republican officials, who described the U.S. president as dangerously naive for trusting his Russian counterpart.

    ………………………………..

    As is always the case, it’s best to pay less attention to what Trump and his aides say and more attention to what they do. In this case, in response to the most serious attack against the United States since 9/11, Team Trump has done nothing, is doing nothing, and intends to continue to do nothing – except partner with Russia on some kind of “cyber-security unit.”

    This was, of course, a ridiculous idea – when someone breaks into your house, you don’t reach out to them to install a new home-security system – and yet, the White House dispatched Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to ABC News’ “This Week” yesterday to tout the cyber-security unit as “a very significant accomplishment for President Trump.”

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Expect a building boom at supermaxes to hold all the Donald minions who are going to prison

    What The Ever-Loving Fuck???

    Since when have YOU become a “cockeyed optimist”?

    What’s next? TenguPhule and Goku posting all sorts of happy-happy-joy-joy comments? My universe is spinning.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    Self-disenfranchisement is a very bad idea
    07/10/17 11:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump, with the help of some of the nation’s most aggressive voter-suppression pioneers, is moving forward with a ridiculous “voter-integrity” commission, seeking full voter rolls from every state in the nation. So far, the effort is off to an awful start, with many states nationwide – including officials from red and blue states – telling the White House’s panel to go away.

    But there’s apparently a new problem: some voters, who don’t want Trump World to have their personal information, are withdrawing from the system. BuzzFeed reported:

    As of Friday, 46 states had refused to fully cooperate with the commission’s request, but Colorado, a state that had agreed to turn in publicly available information, had seen people looking to withdraw their information completely from their voter systems.

    “What we’re hearing from voters is that they are concerned with the commission,” Haley McKean, a spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County Clerk in Colorado, told BuzzFeed News. McKean said at least 160 people had withdrawn their information in the county since the start of July and that “dozens” of others had changed their information to confidential.

    “Colorado prides itself on its voter registration and its voter turnout,” Lynn Bartels, communications director for Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, told BuzzFeed News. “The idea that people are withdrawing their registration, even if it’s just temporary, is not news we want to hear.”

  26. 26.

    Yarrow

    Christ, these people are weird:

    And Bannon, too, had a healthy self-regard. On his office wall hung an oil painting of Bannon dressed as Napoleon in his study at the Tuileries, done in the style of Jacques-Louis David’s famous neoclassical painting — a gift from Nigel Farage.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    @Gretchen:

    I’ve been mystified about the intensity of Republicans trying to cut off access to birth control. Why would you do that?

    They want to prevent wimmins from having unapproved (i.e., by Republicans) sex. I wish I were kidding.

  30. 30.

    The Moar You Know

    Holding my breath starting…NOW!

    @Kraux Pas: You’re gonna die if you wait that long.

    1) An unprecedented amount of shit hits an unprecedented number of fans, and the people in charge of everything — i.e., the GOP — collectively say, “So what?” and do nothing about any of it.
    2) Indictments rain down from Mueller. His back and rest of his putrescent self to a gilded wall, Trump pardons EVERYBODY — including himself.

    @Hungry Joe: We’re already living number one – and that’s not changing until Dems can flip both the House and Senate – and I’m not seeing any movement on making #2 happen at all.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @zhena gogolia:

    By the way, where’s Corner Stone?

    I don’t know. But I find it interesting that I have never seen Corner Stone in the same room with either TenguPhule or Goku. Or Villago, for that matter. Hmmm.

  32. 32.

    Yarrow

    @Gretchen:

    I’ve been mystified about the intensity of Republicans trying to cut off access to birth control. Why would you do that?

    How is this a mystery? Republicans want to control women. One of the best ways is to force them to be pregnant and have lots of kids. Their objection to abortion is hardly about being “pro-life,” as is evident from their defunding anything to help support those babies once they’re born and their rabid support for the death penalty. If they truly cared about lowering the abortion rate they’d be all in on sex education and birth control. They’re not because it’s not what they really care about. They care about controlling women. That’s why they’re really pro forced birth, not pro life.

  33. 33.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @SFAW:

    They want to prevent wimmins from having unapproved (i.e., by Republicans) sex. I wish I were kidding.

    Amanda Marcotte had a great analysis many years ago on her old Pandagon blog. Yes, it’s about the wimmin-folk and unapproved sex but there’s more to it. It’s an attempt to push women “back where they belong”: barefoot, pregnant (married of course), chained to the bed with just enough slack to get into the kitchen.

    By holding the fear of unwanted pregnancies over women, it’s the most potent controlling mechanism the modern GOP has over the wimmin-folk. Thus, it’s all about that…and punishing the sluts.

    I wish I’d bookmarked that blog entry all those years ago as I’ve seen variations on it from others since but nothing with the clarity of her argument.

  34. 34.

    Nicole

    @NorthLeft12: Yeah, it’s fascinating. Or it would be, if the effects weren’t so horrible.

    I had somewhat of a mini-experience with it on the other side, back during the Bush’s Folly, when Keith Olbermann was on MSNBC and the only person criticizing the war. But his show was always SO ANGRY that after 2 months I thought, “I gotta stop watching this; it’s making me angry all day long.” But I think some people get a rush off that constant state of outrage and get hooked.

  35. 35.

    Yarrow

    @zhena gogolia:

    By the way, where’s Corner Stone?

    Seems like Corner Stone has been gone awhile. I do remember him mentioning that he was going to take his son on a trip this summer, I think doing outdoors stuff in some western states. Maybe he’s off the grid doing that.

  36. 36.

    The Moar You Know

    I’ve been mystified about the intensity of Republicans trying to cut off access to birth control. Why would you do that?

    @Gretchen:

    1. Satisfies the Puritan “no fucking for fun” mindset that still very much rules quite a bit of this country,
    2. The truly psycho Jesus freaks have been taught that birth control pills are an abortifacient, so you help nail that vote down as well,
    3. while assuredly somewhat about controlling women, I think the true reason is that a lack of birth control is a GREAT way to knock people out of the middle class and keep ’em poor. It’s not aimed at just women. Republicans hate the middle class more than any American institution. It’s aimed at everybody, with the end goal being a two-class society fueled by economic desperation that resembles Dickens more than anything else.

  37. 37.

    GregB

    Is it me or is it not a fascinating window into to the conservative Republican mind that the loathed fantasy, ruthless, Machiavellian, autocratic, dictatorial, murderer of internal political dissenters Hillary Cliton is the mirror image of the actual Vladimir Putin that the conservative Republican right so loves and wants to embrace and emulate?

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    People who are unaware of Magnitsky’s “mysterious circumstances” need to read Browder’s book. Nothing mysterious at all, actually.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    @Gretchen:

    You’re right about this. I’ve been mystified about the intensity of Republicans trying to cut off access to birth control. Why would you do that? But read in concert with the surveys that show that Trump voters are more concerned with race and immigration than others, and comments on conservative blogs that explicitly say that they’re worried about whiteness being lost with all the immigration and intermarriage. Anything to have white girls have more babies.

    You nailed it.

  42. 42.

    SenyorDave

    This was part of a comment about Obama on Hullabaloo (Digby) that managed to make made me laugh and got me angry (because its true):

    I was never among those who worshiped the guy, although I always appreciated his intelligence and maturity. But he looks like a combination of Gandhi, Washington, Einstein and Jesus Christ compared to our current leader.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    @Hungry Joe:

    2) Indictments rain down from Mueller. His back and rest of his putrescent self to a gilded wall, Trump pardons EVERYBODY — including himself.

    That’s why the state cases are so important. He can’t pardon those.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Expect a building boom at supermaxes to hold all the Donald minions who are going to prison

    Sounds like the plot of the next “Despicable Me” movie. But even more fun.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    As fight continues, GOP senator calls McConnell’s health bill ‘dead’
    07/10/17 10:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had a plan. He and his aides would write a bill in secret, rally GOP senators behind it, and then hold a vote before Congress broke for the 4th of July. That gambit failed spectacularly.

    Which led McConnell to pursue Plan B. He’d make some changes to his bill, build a partisan consensus, shore up GOP support over the holiday recess, and then pass it this week. That, too, hasn’t worked out well.

    Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told Fox News yesterday that the legislation McConnell drafted “clearly … is dead” – a point bolstered by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), who suggested on Friday night that the Senate Republicans’ proposal no longer exists.

    As Politico put it, “It was a grim week for the Republican effort to repeal Obamacare.”

    The few GOP senators who hosted town hall meetings over the Fourth of July recess were hammered by constituents for trying to undo the health care law. Reliable conservatives like Sens. Jerry Moran and John Hoeven outlined their opposition to the current version of the Senate repeal bill. Even Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged at a luncheon back home in Kentucky that the effort might fail.

    Buffeted by headwinds, Republicans will return to Washington on July 10 facing even longer odds for piecing together a bill that can win over skeptical moderates and conservatives in the three weeks before the August recess…. [C]orralling 50 votes looks even more challenging after the holiday. The time away from Washington seemed to embolden uncommitted moderates, who are worried about the political and policy implications of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

    ………………………………

    The Washington Post reported that there’s still an “urgent blitz” on the way.

    Aware that the next 14 days probably represent their last chance to salvage their flagging endeavor, President Trump, Vice President Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) intend to single out individual senators and escalate a broad defense of the evolving proposal, according to Republicans familiar with their plans.

    When Trump returns from Europe, he plans to counter the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the legislation – which shows that 22 million fewer people would have insurance coverage by 2026 than under the current law – with figures and analyses from conservative groups and Republicans that show more benefits and less disruption, should the bill pass, according to a White House official familiar with the strategy.

    Of course, if GOP officials are re-writing the bill, quickly coming up with phony data to compete with the Congressional Budget Office’s figures might be tricky. For that matter, whether on-the-fence senators would take seriously “figures and analyses from conservative groups” is unclear.

  48. 48.

    Mom Says I'm Handsome

    @NorthLeft12: Maybe your dad and my mom knew each other — her family was swept up in WWII from Poland by the Russians to camps in Siberia, and after the war she lived in Egypt and Zimbabwe before settling in London, where she met my dad (who had a more conventional war experience, fleeing Poland by fording a river while Nazi bullets flew around him).

    Poles are funny (peculiar, not ha-ha) people. To this day my parents believe the War happened because of Teh Jooz, not because of Hitler and his fucked-up race beliefs (and economic conditions in 1930’s Europe, etc). “No Jooz, no war,” say my folks. That sort of pre-conditioning made them ripe targets for Rush Limbaugh and Fox News propaganda. My dad spends his retirement reading biographies of American presidents; it seems like he’s wasting his time learning about the Great Men of our age if he can still effortlessly pivot to “global warming is a hoax because Algore is Fat” and “Gummint is bad because Saint Ronald said so.”

  49. 49.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:
    There is another element that commonly goes missed here: Racist tropes. One of the major conservative beliefs is that black women are slutty animals who have lots of irresponsible sex. When they think they’re punishing women for having sex, part of the idea is that it’s mostly black women who will suffer.

  50. 50.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So Trump is going to the Jules Verne to dine with Macron. Apparently, blue lobster and good caviar are on the menu.

    I anticipated that he’ll want the lobster deep fried and have it served with tartar sauce, french fries, hush puppies and a gallon of New Coke.

  51. 51.

    Gin & Tonic

    @zhena gogolia: OT, but wanted to add a bit on the “на” vs “в” distinction from yesterday. While the change in usage, IMO, is not as dramatic or widespread as you suggest, the canonical usage of “на” for most Ukrainians is Prince Sviatoslav’s “Іду на вас!” meaning “I am invading you.” So certainly “на Україну” has some of that sense. Nevertheless, the way I see it, the efforts to remove the definite article in English usage came more from the post-war Ukrainian diaspora in English-speaking countries, primarily the US and Canada.

  52. 52.

    feebog

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Expect a building boom at supermaxes to hold all the Donald minions who are going to prison.

    I actually toured the SuperMax in Florence CO. a few years ago. The facility is huge, actually four prisons in the complex; a work camp, medium security, high security and the supermax. Interestingly, the high security and supermax are actually mirror images, but supermax prisoners get a higher level of security inside the prison. Oh, and Florence CO is one of the most depressing places on the face of the earth.

  54. 54.

    Gretchen

    Yes, I’ve always agreed that the birth control thing involved controlling women and keeping us from competing. But this election convinced me that anxiety about whiteness becoming a minority is a bigger driver of our politics than I’d realized. I think it was decisive this time and is driving policies.

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    Where the world sees failure, Team Trump sees success
    07/10/17 09:00 AM—UPDATED 07/10/17 10:19 AM
    By Steve Benen

    By most measures, Donald Trump’s second trip as president was a disaster, though the White House chooses not to see it that way. The New York Times reported:

    [F]rom the perspective of Mr. Trump’s team, the trip to Poland and Germany turned out to be a surprising early high point in his presidency, providing a brief but welcome respite from the forever wars in Washington.

    White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer described the trip as an “historic” visit. The president himself said it was a “great success.”

    That’s certainly one way to look at it. On the other hand, Andrea Mitchell, NBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent, and a veteran reporter who’s covered a great many presidential trips abroad, concluded over the weekend, “I can’t think of a worse summit since Reykjavik.”

    The comment referred to Reagan’s failed nuclear talks with the then-Soviet Union in 1986 – more than three decades ago.

    …………………………….

    The Washington Post reported that by the time Trump left Germany, officials abroad were left “fearing for the future.”

    The scale of disharmony was remarkable for the annual Group of 20 meeting of world economic powers, a venue better known for sleepy bromides about easy-to-agree-on issues. Even as negotiators made a good-faith effort to bargain toward consensus, European leaders said that a chasm has opened between the United States and the rest of the world. […]

    The divisions were most bitter on climate change, where 19 leaders formed a unified front against Trump. But even in areas of nominal compromise, such as trade, top European leaders said they have little faith that an agreement forged today could hold tomorrow.

    A New York Times report added that to much of the rest of the world, “the gathering underscored the administration’s growing distance with, and isolation from, the other G-20 members.”

  56. 56.

    Cain

    @Gretchen:
    Trust me, her parents probably aren’t thrilled either, but at least they are thinking “Thank God, he is white!” /s Racist fucks all around.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    At G-20 gathering, Ivanka Trump literally had a seat at the table
    07/10/17 09:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    There were several memorable moments from the G-20 meeting in Germany, but Bloomberg Politics flagged one of the more jarring

    Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, took his seat at a Group of 20 meeting table in Hamburg, sitting in for the president when he stepped away for one-on-one discussions with other world leaders.

    A photo on Twitter showed Ivanka Trump, 35, sitting in her father’s seat between Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May. Also seated nearby were German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkey’s President Recip Tayyip Erdogan.

    One official who was watching the session said Ivanka Trump had taken her father’s place at the table on at least two occasions on Saturday, but didn’t speak.

    The president himself described this as “very standard.” Veteran diplomats drew the opposite conclusion: former NATO ambassador Nicholas Burns, who served as a diplomat under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, told the Washington Post the incident with Ivanka Trump was a breach of protocols for such summits.

    Having the U.S. secretary of state take the president’s place at the table would be normal; having the president’s inexperienced daughter take his place was not.

    But in the broader context, one of the striking aspects of the president’s daughter taking on such a role is how unsurprising it is.

  59. 59.

    SFAW

    @GregB:

    Is it me or is it not a fascinating window into to the conservative Republican mind that the loathed fantasy, ruthless, Machiavellian, autocratic, dictatorial, murderer of internal political dissenters Hillary Cliton is the mirror image of the actual Vladimir Putin that the conservative Republican right so loves and wants to embrace and emulate?

    It is ALWAYS projection with Rethugs.

  61. 61.

    Yarrow

    @Gretchen: You are correct about that. Those guys who called the election early on (professors somewhere in California, maybe?), that Trump could/would win the primary, nomination and general election, said their research showed it was all about racism. It’s a much bigger deal than people like to think, at least ostensibly liberal white people.

  62. 62.

    The Moar You Know

    People who are unaware of Magnitsky’s “mysterious circumstances” need to read Browder’s book. Nothing mysterious at all, actually.

    @Gin & Tonic: Blunt force trauma is never mysterious.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @Kraux Pas:

    RE: Donald trump tweeted: “If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the fake news would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!

    My takeaway from this was that while Ivanka was holding his seat, Trump was giving the country away. Only behind closed doors in this instance.

    There’s often an interesting consistency to Trump’s Twitter rants. His accusations about the misdeeds of others are often confessions of his own misdeeds.

    Similar with some of his stump speeches. He insinuated that Hillary didn’t have the stamina to be world leader; and his people went out of their way to keep Trump’s G20 related travel short so he would not get too worn out, and could get back and be put to bed.

  64. 64.

    Cain

    @The Moar You Know:

    3. while assuredly somewhat about controlling women, I think the true reason is that a lack of birth control is a GREAT way to knock people out of the middle class and keep ’em poor. It’s not aimed at just women. Republicans hate the middle class more than any American institution. It’s aimed at everybody, with the end goal being a two-class society fueled by economic desperation that resembles Dickens more than anything else.

    Which is fucked up since most of them are coming from the middle class. It’s like they are trying to curry favor with old money to prevent new money to show up. I have no idea what kind of pleasure centers have been rubbed by old money for these people for them to abandon everything and just show up for handouts after they’ve demolished the middle class. They themselves will never be old money, they will still be plebes. Useful idiots.

  65. 65.

    satby

    @Roger Moore:

    major reason for adopting a baby from Russia is to guarantee it has the right racial characteristics, since there aren’t enough nice white babies up for adoption here in the USA to meet demand*. Cutting off that supply is most keenly felt by Trump’s racist supporters.

    I was waiting to make that same point. It’s all about the whitey, white, white.

  66. 66.

    But her emails!!!

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    If “Killary’ actually WERE Killary, there’d be a lot more bodies of prominent people who appear on Faux Noise all the time laying around.

    I like to think that Killary would be more creative in body disposal than to just leave them lying around for people to trip over.

    It would make an interesting dystopian/utopian series of graphic novels.

  67. 67.

    Yarrow

    @satby: It’s also why “Build the Wall” and deport all the “illegals” was so popular. Same with the travel ban against people from Muslim countries. Whitey, white, white.

  68. 68.

    satby

    @rikyrah: early in the 70s, pretty much right after Roe, the forced birthers were more open about the worry they had that the primary women who would get an abortion was white, educated, and middle or upper class, leaving poorer and minority women to overpopulate the country. I actually had to sit through a lecture at my Catholic nursing school given by a RtLer where she explicitly stated that.

  70. 70.

    The Moar You Know

    I anticipated that he’ll want the lobster deep fried and have it served with tartar sauce, french fries, hush puppies and a gallon of New Coke.

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: What does it say about me that the only part of that combo I find unforgivable is the New Coke?

    Frankly, the rest of it I’d be all over, preferably with a nice, light lager.

  72. 72.

    Barbara

    @Roger Moore: This is kind of unfair. International adoptions occur in countries with social conditions that have produced a lot of babies without parents or with parents unable to raise them, but in which natives do not embrace adoption (or in which the number of babies outpaces the number of prospective adoptive parents). People go to those countries where authorities are willing to permit non-residents to adopt. Countries with clear and predictable rules are especially favored. That could be China, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Bolivia, India — or Russia. I know people who have adopted kids from each of these countries, and over time, several (India and Guatemala) have tightened their rules and made a significant push to encourage native adoption, which is a great thing. You might ask why there is a preference for newborns or at least kids under the age of 2. You might ask why there are people who are leery about mixed race adoptions. But surely no one should be guilted into adoption. Many people want the experience of raising children from a young age. Unless you are someone who decided not to have that experience in favor of adopting an older child maybe you should refrain from passing reflexive judgment.

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: It’s true of rank-and-file Trump supporters too. I had a (mercifully brief) encounter with one the other day who couldn’t understand why I wasn’t impressed with Trump’s successful revision of the tax code (didn’t happen), reduction of regulations (uh, allowing coal companies to pollute streams again?), turnaround of the U.S. economy (still coasting on Obama and the Democrats’ work) and restoration of U.S. leadership abroad (the exact fucking opposite has happened). These are the same shitheads who sneer about “participation trophies” for children, demanding recognition of a grown-ass man’s non-existent accomplishments. There’s no reasoning with these assholes.

  75. 75.

    randy khan

    @But her emails!!!:

    I like to think that Killary would be more creative in body disposal than to just leave them lying around for people to trip over.

    It would make an interesting dystopian/utopian series of graphic novels.

    I would totally buy those. But I do think she’d leave a body or two lying around for the in terrorem effect.

  76. 76.

    satby

    @Barbara:

    That could be China, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Bolivia, India — or Russia.

    And of all those countries only one has Caucasian children available. Which is what we were talking about, not adoption but parents seeking to adopt a specific race child. Russian kids tended not to be all that young BTW.

  77. 77.

    randy khan

    @Kraux Pas:

    Donald trump tweeted: “If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the fake news would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!

    This was Chelsea’s response:

    Good morning Mr. President. It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not.

    A reminder that it’s stupid to tweet stuff like this when the person you mention has a Twitter account herself.

  78. 78.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SFAW: Both abortion and birth control are examples of women exercising agency.

    Agency by women is bad. Very bad.

    SLUTS MUST BE PUNISHED!

  80. 80.

    different-church-lady

    @Yarrow: It was all tucked away under the surface, dormant, until Trump poured yeast into the system. He made hate fun and proud again, and they responded spectacularly.

  81. 81.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Barbara: I agree with this, but it’s also worth pointing out that of all these countries–many of which will have many more unwanted babies due to his Mexico City on steroids policy–they’re only focusing on making it easier to adopt from the white one (as far as I know).

  82. 82.

    scav

    Spicey knows or should know that “historic” is an awfully low bar to leap over. “First time T piddled in the Oval Office! Historic!” “First time a chihuahua sat in a chair warmed by Trumpian cheeks in an international setting! Historic!” “First time T didn’t piddle on the wall of the Oval Office! Historic!” Besides, as a discipline, history has begun studying the lives of a far more diverse offering of individuals than the so-called great men — see also the salt cod.

  83. 83.

    Elie

    @NorthLeft12:

    Watch out for those “personality changes” in older folks. My Dad, who was black by the way, became more coarse and racist against others after a lifetime as a social worker and very kind and even handed person. He was diagnosed with dementia about a year later. Not saying that is what is happening with your Dad, but personality changes way out of character for an older person can be a flag for cognitive impairment of some sort….

  84. 84.

    Patricia Kayden

    Not trying to sound hyperbolic but Trump feels much more corrupt than Trump. It feels as if every single day there’s another story of his sleaziness, lies and incompetence. Mueller is going to have so much ground to cover in his investigation. I almost feel sorry for him and his team of lawyers.

    Anyways, we can still do our part and resist as best as we can. This is not normal.

  85. 85.

    SFAW

    @randy khan:

    Good morning Mr. President. It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not.

    Glad somebody well-known said it. If only the MSM could figure out how to do that.

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @satby: Yes, I know, and I sometimes wonder why people choose any of these countries — many actually try multiple countries before they are successful (had a friend who went to Guatemala and then India). There is no doubt that some people want kids who look like them. It’s also the case that Russia has become known as a higher risk country for various reasons and so the number of people going to Russia for adoption has decreased. It’s just that a lot of this depends on specific agencies, contacts, heritage, etc. I had a friend who adopted three kids from Russia. After the first, it was just easier to get the second and third through the same agency. IIRC, the father had business contacts in Russia and spoke Russian. It’s not just racism — it might be inherent self-doubt about one’s capacity to cope with multicultural circumstances.

  87. 87.

    different-church-lady

    @rikyrah: Trump is building his wall. But instead of a physical wall on the Mexican border, it’s a psychological wall around the entire country. And it’s exactly what his voters want.

  88. 88.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @randy khan: The disappearance of so many Faux talking head guests would raise eyebrows, even without the bodies littering the sidewalk outside of Faux Noise.

    “Killary” isn’t nearly stabby or shooty enough for my tastes.

    (Is that better SFAW?)

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @Cain:

    Which is fucked up since most of them are coming from the middle class. It’s like they are trying to curry favor with old money to prevent new money to show up.

    I understand the point you are trying to make, but America is really the land of new money. And some of the right wing nut jobs seem to think that providing for the general welfare actually prevents the eruption of new gazillionaires.

    Betsy DeVos, for example, is the daughter-in-law of billionaire and Amway co-founder Richard DeVos. Richard DeVos is worth around $5 billion (the 88th richest family in America). But this is only, what, 2 generations.

    The 19th century robber barons sought to marry “old money” American and European families. I don’t know if this is as true of tech billionaires.

    Betsy DeVos also has 4 children. Ivanka Trump and her husband have 3 children. Fertility is easier when you’ve got money, but even these women seem to have limits. Here, I agree with you that the opposition to birth control is hypocritical.

  90. 90.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SFAW:

    If only the MSM could figure out how to do that.

    They are far too busy perusing the latest ratings and setting ad rates to worry about those trivial things.

  91. 91.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s lawyers push to make defamation lawsuit go away
    07/10/17 11:30 AM
    By Steve Benen
    As much of the world no doubt recalls, Donald Trump was recorded in 2005 boasting about his romantic exploits, which eventually led him to brag about committing sexual assaults. The Republican said, among other things, that he kisses women he considers attractive – “I don’t even wait,” Trump claimed – which he said he can get away with because of his public profile.

    “And when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump said on the recording. “You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the p—y.”

    After Trump denied having done what he bragged about doing, 11 women came forward to accuse the Republican of sexual misconduct – one of whom, Summer Zervos, is currently suing the president for defamation, stemming from the controversy.

    The Washington Post reports that Trump’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, who’s also helping defend the president in the Russia scandal, is pushing a few arguments in the hopes of making this case go away, including the curious idea that campaign rhetoric doesn’t count.

  93. 93.

    bemused

    @SFAW:

    It’s so bizarre. They don’t want all “those” people having babies paid for by “welfare” but don’t want them or any woman getting “free” birth control either. Makes no phucking sense.

  94. 94.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Now storys about Banon being a lose canon, sounds like the plastic sporks are out in full force in the Trump admin

  96. 96.

    randy khan

    @Elie:

    One of the strangest things that happened with my mother during her cognitive decline was a brief period (after she’d already been diagnosed) when she talked about how people from certain African tribes were. We eventually figured out that she was having a problem with a specific aide and replaced the aide, but I remember thinking how peculiar it was from a woman whose actual best friends included a black couple from our church and who had never seemed to have a prejudiced bone in her body. It was just a brief phase, but it was very disturbing at the time.

  98. 98.

    randy khan

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Ah, but the missing talking heads would add to the mystery – have they gone into hiding to protect themselves from Killary, or are they victims (or, as I’d put it, the subjects of summary justice)?

    I think we could put the plot for this together fairly quickly.

  100. 100.

    Millard Filmore

    @Yarrow:

    Whitey, white, white.

    So when my brother says “#allLivesMatter” I should respond with “You mispronounced #whiteLivesFirst”?

  102. 102.

    randy khan

    @Barbara:

    I have friends who’ve done foreign adoptions, and one of the things I didn’t appreciate before they went through the process is how each country has its own approach and standards. China had an age limit on the parents (which makes sense, I have to say), for instance, and also apparently has different standards for parents who are getting girls than for the extremely rare adopting couples who get boys. (One interesting quirk of the Chinese adoption process at the time my friends did it was that the fee not only had to be paid in cash, but that the currency had to be brand new. There were stories about people being rejected at the point of getting a child if the money was used.)

  104. 104.

    bemused

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Pretty self-defeating goal they have then if they looked at it logically but of course they don’t. It would take a lot less out of their “taxpayer dollars” if there was comprehensive sex ed and birth control for women as easy and cheap to get than pregnancy, delivery and child care. They bitterly resent white people getting any government assistance almost as much as non-white people. They are all just rageaholics and assholes.

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @bemused:

    It’s so bizarre. They don’t want all “those” people having babies paid for by “welfare” but don’t want them or any woman getting “free” birth control either. Makes no phucking sense.

    They have a problem with women phucking.

    These people also seem to fall back on the twisted “traditional” silliness that it is acceptable for men to try to get as much sex as they can from women, but it is the woman’s “fault” if the man succeeds, and the woman should be doubly punished if she gets pregnant.

  106. 106.

    SatanicPanic

    I’m enjoying the internet trolls’ tortured defenses of DJT Jr. Now they’re suggesting he was actually investigating Hillary to find out if SHE was colluding with Russia, so he had to take this meeting. I kid you not, that’s their new angle.

  107. 107.

    gvg

    FWIW foster parent training was done jointly with adoptive parent training in my area and several families had already adopted once. the discussions were interesting. The social workers brought up the question of how do your relatives feel about race and adoption? apparently from the already adopted families stories, grandparents and in laws can be very racist and unfair to children. It may be something a couple decides they can’t fight and better to have a child that will be accepted by other relatives. the stories were a side I had never thought about. At any rate, social workers made us think about how often we had to encounter other relatives and other issues. another issue was if there were already biological grandchildren, would the grandparents and aunts/uncles treat them all the same.
    Prospective adoptive parents are often very hungry for children and looking for a way to be flexible and happy themselves, but some still have other family. Of course some are more just a couple a long way from other family due to jobs or even estrangement or just luck. Turns out that matters and the social workers pointed it out.
    It was all strange to me because by a fluke, my grandmother and 6 of my first cousins some on both sides were adopted so i just grew up with that as normal. 40+ years ago my uncle was asked by his social worker if he had discussed his moms feelings about adoption before applying and he answered, “well no, I just figured since she was adopted, she’d be thrilled.” She was. It was eye opening to find out today not everybody feels that way.
    The race issue (and religion too) were also brought up as most children have questions about identity as they grow up and it helps if you are able to keep contact and help them keep contact with their origins. We were asked if we would go to events or make friends with other race people or go to different churches sometimes etc. So starting the same was easier but that also limited your odds of adopting. there are a lot of different scenarios.

  108. 108.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @bemused: Now that you bring up “taxpayer dollars” ever noticed this disturbing undercurrent in American politics that taxpayers are the only real citizens and non-taxpayers (always poor) should have no rights? I believe that everyone should pay their fair share but citizenship is citizenship

  109. 109.

    Aleta

    Very bad 2013 music video for the fake pop singer-lipsyncher who is coincidentally the son of wealthy Russian real estate developer; Goldstone supposedly reps the singer. Our fake president is at the end of the video. Also there’s some women in bathing suits who smile and walk down some stairs and are supposedly from the Miss U.
    youtube.com/watch?v=iuZUNjFsgS8

  112. 112.

    gene108

    @Gretchen:

    But this election convinced me that anxiety about whiteness becoming a minority is a bigger driver of our politics than I’d realized

    Yeah, I think a lot of us grossly underestimated white folks fear of losing their privileged status.

  114. 114.

    trollhattan

    @Elie:
    A sad note and important reminder that the person you see late in life may be utterly removed from the person they were before. Saw this with my grandma, mom and MIL at their respective retirement homes, not so much them as the other residents, some of whom were simply awful in ways I’m sure would appall their younger selves.

    While I was sitting vigil in her room after my MIL passed a resident parked herself outside the door screaming, “My drugs; they’ve stolen my drugs; give me my drugs!!!” I can find a sliver of humor today, not to mention vast respect for folks working with this population, but at the time it was pretty unwelcome and I was just happy my wife was away attending to pesky afterlife details. It would have pushed her too far, I suspect.

  115. 115.

    scav

    @Millard Filmore: Well, any time he says “I love my [family member].” correct him with “You love all your [family members].”. Works best if applied to children — he still won’t get it most like as he probably does love all his children but isn’t as convinced that all lives really matter.

  116. 116.

    The Moar You Know

    Now that you bring up “taxpayer dollars” ever noticed this disturbing undercurrent in American politics that taxpayers are the only real citizens and non-taxpayers (always poor) should have no rights?

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: We came by it honestly; used to be the law of the land that in order to vote, you have to be white, male, over 35, and have a certain amount of tangible assets. I think the dollar value had to be $500 (a pretty large sum back in those times). We had a lot of citizens. Very few of them could vote.

    This ain’t a new thing. It’s a very old, bad idea bubbling up from the cesspool of American history.

  118. 118.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @The Moar You Know: Hell, in the earliest days of the republic, even being white and male wasn’t enough to have suffrage. Only landed elite, like you mention could vote. Universal white male suffrage didn’t really happen until Andy Jackson’s presidency

  119. 119.

    TenguPhule

    @The Moar You Know:

    It’s a very old, bad idea bubbling up from the cesspool of American history.

    A lot of that these days. Funny how it only comes from one party though.

  120. 120.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    for all their flaws, the tech billionaires do seem to marry for love.

    You might be right. I wonder if anyone has done a book on the social lives of tech giants, beginning with, say Hewlett-Packard.

  121. 121.

    TenguPhule

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Expect a building boom at supermaxes to hold all the Donald minions who are going to prison

    Why bother? They’re all going into very small urns which will be emptied out at sea shortly anyway.

  122. 122.

    TenguPhule

    @Gretchen:

    Those Asians that came over here in the 60’s and 70’s are having American-born grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they’re not going away.

    The Republicans have solution for that.

    A final one.

  123. 123.

    TenguPhule

    @SFAW:

    TenguPhule and Goku posting all sorts of happy-happy-joy-joy comments?

    That was 3 weeks ago. Do keep up please.

  124. 124.

    Aleta

    @Aleta: About the pop star’s dad Aras Agalarov and the Trumps and the 2013 Miss U in Russia:

    Trump tweeted Putin a personal invitation to attend the pageant, and a one-on-one meeting between the New York businessman and the Russian leader was scheduled for the day before the show.

    Putin canceled at the last minute, but he sent a decorative lacquered box, a traditional Russian gift, and a warm note, according to Aras Agalarov, a Moscow billionaire who served as a liaison between Trump and the Russian leader.

    Still, the weekend was fruitful for Trump. He received a portion of the $14 million paid by Agalarov and other investors to bring the pageant to Moscow. Agalarov said he and Trump signed an agreement to build a Trump Tower in the heart of Moscow — at least Trump’s fifth attempt at such a venture. And Trump seemed energized by his interactions with Russia’s financial elite at the pageant and a glitzy after-party in a Moscow nightclub.

    Trumpovitch now is trying to pass off the June 2016 NYC meeting as innocent acquiescence to a request from Goldstone, a man he only chanced to meet in Moscow 2013. Funny how It takes them such a long time to construct such bad coverup stories. (WaPo June 17, 2016)

  125. 125.

    TenguPhule

    @Yarrow:

    On his office wall hung an oil painting of Bannon dressed as Napoleon in his study at the Tuileries, done in the style of Jacques-Louis David’s famous neoclassical painting — a gift from Nigel Farage.

    Weird isn’t quite the word I’d use for this.

    Vomit-inducing, perhaps.

  126. 126.

    Millard Filmore

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    and #whiteLivesFirst wouldn’t?

    How about #allLivesMatterButWhiteLivesComeFirst ?
    When the shit hits the fan (economy crashes or indictments come down) I will be writing a not very nice email to my brother and sister. Thanks for helping on this one small portion of that message.

  127. 127.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Millard Filmore:
    He means ‘black lives don’t matter.’ One of the crystal clear lessons of the Obama years is how important it is – to the point of frothing rage – to a good half of white America that black lives not matter. Wasn’t approval of BLM the best (negative) indicator of voting for Trump?

  128. 128.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @The Moar You Know: I would be interested in seeing a source for the over 35 thing. You are suggesting that people could be qualified by age to run for the House or Senate, but too young to vote.

  129. 129.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Millard Filmore:

    #allLivesMatterButWhiteLivesComeFirst

    I think it’s really just ‘black lives do not matter.’ The idea of black lives mattering infuriates a vast swathe of whites who are not normally visibly racist.

    (My first post on this was FYWP’d.)

  130. 130.

    TenguPhule

    @GregB:

    Is it me or is it not a fascinating window into to the conservative Republican mind that the loathed fantasy, ruthless, Machiavellian, autocratic, dictatorial, murderer of internal political dissenters Hillary Cliton is the mirror image of the actual Vladimir Putin that the conservative Republican right so loves and wants to embrace and emulate?

    It’s you. The rest of us just want these insane fuckers gone.

  131. 131.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    There’s often an interesting consistency to Trump’s Twitter rants. His accusations about the misdeeds of others are often confessions of his own misdeeds.

    Tell me about it. The only thing left to be revealed is who Trump has murdered and how he did it.

  132. 132.

    Brachiator

    @The Moar You Know:

    We came by it honestly; used to be the law of the land that in order to vote, you have to be white, male, over 35, and have a certain amount of tangible assets. I think the dollar value had to be $500 (a pretty large sum back in those times). We had a lot of citizens. Very few of them could vote.

    A brief summary of the earliest rules.

    The United States Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U.S., most states allowed only white male adult property owners to vote.

    Freed slaves could vote in four states.Men without property and women were largely prohibited from voting. Women could vote in New Jersey until 1807 (provided they could meet the property requirement) and in some local jurisdictions in other northern states. Non-white Americans could also vote in these jurisdictions, provided they could meet the property requirement.

    By 1856, white men were allowed to vote in all states regardless of property ownership, although requirements for paying tax remained in five states. On the other hand several states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey stripped the free black males of the right to vote in the same period.

    It’s funny how economic anxiety led to a demand for increased voting rights:

    Hard times resulting from the Panic of 1819 led many people to demand an end to property restrictions on voting and officeholding.

    And Rhode Island was freaking weird:

    In 1841, Rhode Island, still operating under a Royal Charter granted in 1663, restricted suffrage to landowners and their eldest sons. The charter lacked a bill of rights and grossly underrepresented growing industrial cities, such as Providence, in the state legislature. As Rhode Island grew increasingly urban and industrial, the state’s landless population increased and fewer residents were eligible to vote. By 1841, just 11,239 out of 26,000 adult males were qualified to vote.

  133. 133.

    bemused

    @Brachiator:

    There are fewer incidents of a man getting assaulted and raped by a man but when it does happen, you don’t hear comments like, what did he expect, dressed like that, leaving his drink unattended, drinking too much, etc.

  134. 134.

    bemused

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    They always seem to bring up how people getting government assistance of any kind is taking so much money out of their pockets. The rare occasion that I actually get into it with the bitter people, I take the economic route, how much more money would come out of your pocket if we don’t do x, y or z. They don’t want to hear it or believe it. They want to have their SS/Medicare because only they “earned it” but they also want and will happily take other government assistance because only they “deserve” it. They think they are special.

  136. 136.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I guess the people I know are not a broad cross-section — they’re the Russian equivalent of DFH. I thought “v Ukraine” was accepted now, but it seems not all Russians agree. I found this on somebody’s website, a good argument for the change, though:
    Q. Чем аргументируют вариант “в Украине”?
    A. Тем, что предлог “на” характерен не для стран, а для географических территорий с нечётко очерченными границами. С названиями стран (кроме островных) обычно используется предлог “в”. Поэтому, например, говорится “на Руси” (где “Русь” – понятие достаточно расплывчатое, то ли историческое, то ли географическое, то ли “духовное”, неизвестно где начинающееся и заканчивающееся), но “в России” – в государстве Российском. (Стоит процитировать, например, Энциклопедический Словарь Ф.А.Брокгауза и И.А.Ефрона (СПб, 1890—1907): “Украина — так назывались юго–восточные русские земли Речи Посполитой. Это название никогда не было официальным; оно употреблялось только в частном обиходе и сделалось обычным в народной поэзии. Границы земель, которые были известны под именем “украинных”, трудно определить, тем более, что название это не было устойчивым и в разное время обнимало собою неодинаковое пространство.”) С этой точки зрения, говоря об Украине, как о государстве с чётко определёнными границами и статусом, следует употреблять предлог “в” – по крайней мере, в достаточно официальном контексте.

  137. 137.

    Mike in DC

    Bobby Three Sticks is going to do his work quietly. The stories will continue to trickle out. Supposedly the Washington Post is working on a really big story. I assume it touches on collusion. Hoping we see that one this week or next week.

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    @Yarrow:

    Even more, Republicans want to increase the number of white babies being born in America, and so are willing to force women to produce babies against their will. Right out of Handmaid’s Tail and various Fascist manifestos.

    Eliminating birth control is only step one. Forcibly impregnating young White women will be step 2 or 3 or 4 to keep the country from sliding into the Mud-People’s world. I know this is offensive, but it is how the Fascists think. Haters gotta hate.

  139. 139.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think he may be on vacation. A week or two ago he said something about his kid off going off with the ex and the in-laws and he might take some me-time out west.

  140. 140.

    Laura

    @NorthLeft12:nd believes the refugees are coming to Canada just for the healthcare and social assistance.
    I’m curious. Did your Dad come to Canada as a refugee for those same reasons?

  142. 142.

    Immanentize

    @Frankensteinbeck: There is a great book, “Killing the Black Body” that makes the point about rape, abortion, hyper-sexualization and race. It is a bit law-y, but really excellent.

  143. 143.

    Immanentize

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Original Star Trek — A Piece of the Action — Bela Oxmyx:

    I’m a peaceful man at heart, but I’m sick and tired of all these hits. I hit Krako, Krako hits Tepo, Tepo hits me. There’s too many bosses. We can’t get anything done.

  149. 149.

    Gelfling 545

    It occurs to me after reading about Jr.’s comments on his meetings with Russians that he apparantly has a great deal of subconscious hostillity towards his father.

  150. 150.

    Shana

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’ve been saying this for years. I’m as pro choice as it’s possible to be, so while I disagree with the “pro life” position vehemently, at least the “no exception for rape and incest” position is actually a consistent position as opposed to the slut shaming that it usually is.

  152. 152.

    Aleta

    Goldstone and Trump
    motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/how-a-music-publicist-connected-trumps-inner-circle-to-a-russian-la…

    Including a new version:
    “On Monday afternoon, Goldstone issued this statement: “I was asked by my client in Moscow—Emin Agalarov—to help facilitate a meeting between a Russian attorney (Natalia Veselnitzkaya) and Donald Trump Jr. The lawyer had apparently stated she had some information regarding illegal campaign contributions to the DNC which she believed Mr. Trump Jr. might find important. I reached out to Donald Trump Jr. and he agreed to squeeze us into a very tight meeting schedule. At the meeting, the Russian attorney presented a few very general remarks regarding campaign funding and then quickly turned the topic to that of the Magnitzky Act and the banned US adoption of Russian children—at which point the meeting was halted by Don Jr. and we left. Nothing came of that meeting and there was no follow up between the parties.” “

  153. 153.

    catclub

    @Aleta: Just happens to match up with what Trump JR has said, but comes after he knows what Trump Jr said.

  156. 156.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @J R in WV: Didn’t Nazis have a program (or maybe just a plan in the works) for acceptably Aryan males to impregnate as many acceptably Aryan females as possible? It’s not just that white girls must have as many children as possible. The fathers must be Caucasian as well.

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