Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

After roe, women are no longer free.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Consistently wrong since 2002

You are here: Home / Immigration / Another end is in sight…

Another end is in sight…

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Huckabee-Sanders just announced that Trump will bestow the rose on contestant DACA recipient or contestant white nationalist on Tuesday:

Earlier, asked when he’d make a statement on DACA, Trump said, and I quote, “Today maybe over the weekend. Sunday, Saturday, Monday at the latest.” The explanation for the delay, according to Huckabee-Sanders? “He loves people,” so he wants to make the correct decision. Yeah, right.

Huckabee-Sanders is just a godawful flack — so peevish and insincere. Even if she weren’t flacking for a heinous, impulsive, lying creep, she would be a terrible, no good, very bad flack. Huckabee-Sanders’ awfulness is a measure of just how hard the Trump regime has had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to staff their joke of an administration.

The slats at the bottom of that barrel are long gone, and Huckabee-Sanders is a freakish creepy-crawler excavated from the earth’s mantle and thrust, blinking angrily, onto the global stage. I’d pity her if she wasn’t such a thoroughly dreadful person.

Anyhoo. Open thread.

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  1. 1.

    efgoldman

    Huckabee-Sanders is a freakish creepy-crawler excavated from the earth’s mantle and thrust, blinking angrily, onto the global stage. I’d pity her if she wasn’t such a thoroughly dreadful person.

    Well, look who her father is.

  3. 3.

    TenguPhule

    Huckabee-Sanders is just a godawful flack — so peevish and insincere. Even if she weren’t flacking for a heinous, impulsive, lying creep, she would be a terrible, no good, very bad flack. Huckabee-Sanders’ awfulness is a measure of just how hard the Trump regime has had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to staff their joke of an administration.

    Don’t hold back Betty, tell us how you really feel about her.

  5. 5.

    cmorenc

    @Betty Cracker:

    You shouldn’t be so subtle, restrained, and polite. Many of us might misunderstand your words as being equivocal about Trump. Tell us how you REALLY feel, Betty!

  6. 6.

    Hill Dweller

    The Huckabee family portrait that’s been floating around the interwebs for a few years is one of the creepier things I’ve ever seen.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    Huckabee-Sanders’ awfulness is a measure of just how hard the Trump regime has had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to staff their joke of an administration.

    I still haven’t gotten an offer.

  11. 11.

    TenguPhule

    I already saw the first version of this movie and I don’t much care for a shittier sequel.

    The UN’s nuclear watchdog has reported that Iran is staying within the main limits set down in a 2015 multilateral agreement that Donald Trump has insisted Tehran is violating.

    he International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium is 88.4kg (about 195lb), less than a third of the maximum allowed under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the 2015 agreement. Under the agreement, Iran accepted limits on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. The current stockpile is just over 1% of the pre-agreement level.

    The stockpile of heavy water is also below the agreed limits, the IAEA said, according to journalists shown the agency’s latest quarterly report on Iran’s nuclear activities. The report comes at a critical time, as Trump has threatened to withhold his certification of Iranian compliance when he is next required to report to Congress in mid-October. He has said he expected Iran to be found non-compliant by then and “if it was up to me” would have found them non-compliant months earlier.

    Former officials say the White House is putting pressure on intelligence officers and other officials to look for Iranian infractions that could justify the withdrawal of US adherence to the agreement, which is also signed by the UK, France, China, Germany and Russia.

  15. 15.

    Droppy

    Every once in a while, I find myself feeling sorry for SHS – why? I don’t know. Reminds me of the kid everyone made fun of, I guess. Wants to be liked but has no redeeming characteristics to make her likable. But then she just sneers out lying, stupid justifications of some policy that no person with a soul could possibly consider good, and it goes away.

  16. 16.

    bystander

    Somebody explain those eyebrows of Huckleberry-Sanders. If the same person is doing both eyebrows, he or she seems to get very angry between the right side and the left side. Don’t get me wrong. They’re perfection in context.

    I liked when she angrily turned on the press for reminding everyone that there is no reasoned, rational discussion of DACA and that she can only blather the party line. “I’m sounding like a broken record because you are making me sound like a broken record.”

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    Speaking of ends…..Mmmm, cured wagyu beef hams.

    Like jamón ibérico, thinly sliced pata de wagyu ibérico (leg of Iberian wagyu) almost melts in the mouth, but its flavour is milder and it lacks the ham’s warm, fatty and throat-coating tang.

    Many people are sceptical before they try it, says the 46-year-old farmer, but those who do are pleasantly surprised.

    “When they try it, they say, ‘This is ham.’ I’m not saying that; I just call it leg. People say it tastes like ham but it also tastes of beef.

    “The cure is just like the one for Iberian ham. But it’s beef and we’re not trying to compete with pork. It tastes the way it does because of the pasture and the way their flavours find their way into the fat.”

  20. 20.

    cmorenc

    Prediction: Trump will announce on Tuesday that ALL DACA immigrants who are sufficiently Aryan in appearance will be allowed to stay. Others, not so much, unless they can provide geneological proof in official records that they are at least half-Aryan.

  21. 21.

    Laura

    So the Russian Consulate in San Francisco is currently ablaze and unsafe. I’m sure it’s a coincidence

  27. 27.

    TenguPhule

    Is there anything Trump’s people can’t get wrong? Anything?

    Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has referred to the situation in the Palestinian territories as “an alleged occupation”, in an apparent break from US foreign policy and mainstream international opinion.

    Talking to the Jerusalem Post in his first major interview with the Israeli media, Friedman appeared to adopt a stance more in line with Israeli settlers, of whom he has been a high-profile supporter.

    One of the two journalists who conducted the interview confirmed to the Guardian that Friedman had been accurately quoted. A US official insisted that Friedman’s comments did not mark a change in US policy.

  38. 38.

    pat

    He is delaying the announcement in order to instill the most fear and apprehension in thousands of innocent people on a holiday weekend.

    That’s why he’s delaying it.
    He is cruel and evil

  39. 39.

    Tim C.

    @rk: he wants it both ways. He wants to be the guy who is loved by the big business wing for his making business great again and by the racists for making America Hite again. Previous GOP presidents at least understood the inherit contradictions and tried to avoid mousetraps like this, but Trump… is dumb and now he can’t have it both ways.

  40. 40.

    Mike in NC

    @TenguPhule: Costco offers Japanese wegyu steaks at something like four 12-ounce cuts for about $499, or $100 off if you order online. We’d be a lot more likely to become vegetarians than pay $225 a pound for meat.

  43. 43.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Baud: I’ve read the Prince (and some of the Discourses) and must confess I’m not entirely sure what’s so Machiavellian about Cooper.

    He’s also absolutely refusing to understand the criticism he got for that piece. If he was actually trying to defend the Twitter-left 2020 scorn cycle he’d have put Gillibrand in place of Deval. By choosing a guy with no prior heat about his run (and then using a human-shield argument), Cooper showed his ass as, at best, engaging in racially-charged trolling (in which case he should have a THICKER FUCKING SKIN).

  44. 44.

    TenguPhule

    @Mike in NC:

    Costco offers Japanese wegyu steaks at something like four 12-ounce cuts for about $499, or $100 off if you order online. We’d be a lot more likely to become vegetarians than pay $225 a pound for meat.

    Its actually cheaper to fly to Japan, buy the wagyu steaks there and cook it yourself. Which I did. It worked out to about $40 a kilogram and I also got a vacation in Tokyo out of it.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    It’s so funny to watch it slowly dawning on Team Trump that they’re horrible and mean-spirited and most people don’t like them.

    I don’t think they can change, though.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    It’s so funny to watch it slowly dawning on Team Trump that they’re horrible and mean-spirited and most people don’t like them.

    They’ve always known that. Now its just that they’re beginning to get a clue that consequences for their actions might actually be on the table this time.

  48. 48.

    TenguPhule

    Look on the bright side, we could be Great Britain instead.

    The remarkably frank and open disagreement at the end of this week’s round of talks on Brexit has left many observers completely bewildered by the British government’s strategy, if indeed it has one. Richard Nixon used to talk about the “madman theory” – sudden violent actions to give the appearance that he was capable of anything, and so should be given whatever he wanted; Mrs May appears to be deploying the “blithering idiot gambit” where a complete disconnect from reality makes the other party in the negotiations feel she has to be humoured. Oddly, it has not so far proved as effective.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    I have some sympathy for Huckabee Sanders – her father is exactly the kind of phony-religious man I avoided as a kid. It was gut-level. I knew they were mean. They are, too. Huckabee’s eyes don’t even change when he smiles. Mean as a snake.

  51. 51.

    Teddys Person

    @Kay: They can’t change because they don’t believe that they are horrible and mean-spirited. The people who don’t like them are horrible and mean-spirited.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @TenguPhule:

    They’ve always known that.

    I don’t think they do. They really mean it. They think they’re great. Oddly, it just adds to the dislike of them, the need to be loved- not just horrible but also needy and demanding. They don’t “try too hard”. They don’t try at all and demand a lot in return.

  56. 56.

    NeenerNeener

    @Mike in NC: I’ve had hamburgers from Kobe beef. They were mushy and I was underwhelmed. The rest of the order sat in my freezer until the next time the power went out, and were then discarded.

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:
    I might eke out some sympathy had she not chosen to go work for a monster and compounding that, be a paid liar on his behalf.

  59. 59.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Droppy: I feel no sympathy for anyone associated with Trump’s regime. They’ve agreed to work for a bigot so they deserve no sympathy. They deserve every drop of ridicule which can be thrown their way. Hope they all are torn down by Mueller when he sets the screws to Trump.

  60. 60.

    TenguPhule

    @NeenerNeener:

    I’ve had hamburgers from Kobe beef.

    There is a special level of hell for the people who came up with the idea to destroy perfectly good steaks and peddle the results as hamburger.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    I think it’s pretty simple- the Dreamers are sympathetic. People don’t hate them reflexively. They’re hard to bully.

    It’s like the disabled people who helped kill the health care bill. They made Republicans look bad.

    They don’t want a group of patriotic, over-achieving young people making Donald Trump look bad, which won’t be hard to do since any one of them is better than him.

  63. 63.

    efgoldman

    @Teddys Person:

    they don’t believe that they are horrible and mean-spirited.

    Sure they do. They know, they care, and they revel in it. Look at Mulvaney, Mnuchin, and Granny Starver.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @trollhattan:

    For some reason she makes me sad. Her face is like a mask of fear. She’s deeply uncomfortable up there. I think the expressionless, blank look she has is fear- it’s defensive. She shuts down emotionally in order to get thru the job. This is in no way natural or easy for her.

  68. 68.

    The Moar You Know

    There is a special level of hell for the people who came up with the idea to destroy perfectly good steaks and peddle the results as hamburger.

    @TenguPhule: Agreed. Also like to point out that the best burgers come from the cheapest meat, the tough stuff. I’ve had Kobe burgers. They were shit. Soggy and mushy, as NeenerNeener notes above. Which is what you’d expect – way too much marbling in that beef to ever make a good burger.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Oh, I agree. I think they’re figuring out people don’t like assholes. In general. Too bad Donald Trump is one. He isn’t gonna change into a completely different person. He’s a nasty piece of work and he’s always been a nasty piece of work. It’s like asking a fish to change into a dog.

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Hill Dweller:

    The Huckabee family portrait that’s been floating around the interwebs for a few years is one of the creepier things I’ve ever seen.

    If it’s the one I’m thinking of (haven’t seen it in a while, have no desire to search), all the men are wearing matching oversized striped shirts that look like they’re made of mattress ticking, and none of them has a neck. Their heads sprout directly out of their humped shoulders. Very creepy indeed.

  73. 73.

    TenguPhule

    @schrodingers_cat:

    How is deporting these people going to make the President look good?

    His base loves the thought of punching down on brown illegals. And make no mistake, that’s what this shitfest is going to be sold as by these assholes, darkskinned illegals coming here and taking all the jobs and sleeping with the white women.

  74. 74.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    They don’t want a group of patriotic, over-achieving young people making Donald Trump look bad, which won’t be hard to do since any one of them is better than him.

    Anyone trying to make Trump look bad can count on Trump for a big assist. It’s pretty easy to make him look bad because he really is bad.

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: @schrodingers_cat: huh, I get a totally different vibe. She knows she’s bullshitting, she thinks she’s untouchable and she enjoys it.

    I thought Spicey looked more uncomfortable, if not quite bright enough to grok exactly why. But then even he had to know he was making an ass of himself by making the crowd size nonsense his debut

  76. 76.

    TenguPhule

    @The Moar You Know:

    Also like to point out that the best burgers come from the cheapest meat, the tough stuff.

    Agreed. And fillings make it taste better and make it more healthy. Carrots, bread crumbs, onion soup mix, mashed potatoes all add character to the mix. 100% all beef patties are shitty.

  80. 80.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Laura:

    So the Russian Consulate in San Francisco is currently ablaze and unsafe. I’m sure it’s a coincidence

    Wow.

  81. 81.

    The Moar You Know

    For some reason she makes me sad. Her face is like a mask of fear. She’s deeply uncomfortable up there. I think the expressionless, blank look she has is fear- it’s defensive. She shuts down emotionally in order to get thru the job. This is in no way natural or easy for her.

    @Kay: Interesting. I don’t discount it, but that’s not what I see up there. I see a spoiled, entitled brat is who is utterly furious that she has to answer to anyone for anything. And I’m not in any way surprised by that, because I’ve seen her dad take uncomfortable questions and respond with the same mix of absolute rage and contempt. That’s a family that really doesn’t think they have to answer to anyone for anything. Unlike the Trumps, the Huckabees feel utterly justified in everything they’ve done. The Trumps at least know their entire lives have been criminal and work very hard to hide it. The Huckabees don’t give a fuck.

    ETA: you do see a mask, Kay. But it’s of rage, not of fear.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    I wonder if a document burning session got out of control?

    That was the first thing that occurred to me. Either that, or a giant arsonic “fuck you” to the entity that owns the building.

  84. 84.

    TenguPhule

    @The Moar You Know:

    I see a spoiled, entitled brat is who is utterly furious that she has to answer to anyone for anything.

    That’s what I see too. Why the press corp keeps putting up with her bullshit and bullying is beyond my understanding.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    Breaking: Trump’s longtime aide Keith Schiller, who delivered Comey firing letter, tells people he has decided to leave WH

    He’s probably leaving for a more lucrative grift but it sure looks like fleeing the scene!

  87. 87.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Ok, so I try not to go all emo online, but the accumulation of awful events is…well accumulating. A good friend who was also our County Democratic Party Chair was killed in an awful accident this weekend. So we’re all in shock and grieving. One of her many gifts was that she was an effective and credible bridge between the Bernie and Hillary people. (I will also add that there’s only one group that continues to relitigate the primaries with a fierce, abiding sense of grievance. That group has also claimed for themselves the mantle of True Progressives. The rest of us are, apparently, swiss cheese or something.)

    I found out this morning that the True Progressives have also proclaimed themselves the keepers of our late friend’s legacy and are holding somewhat secret meetings at headquarters to discuss who will replace her. (We will have to hold elections in about 60 days.) They have invited some county ward officials, but not others, and have been directed by the organizer(s) to restrict the meeting info to their social networks and NOT publicize it to the entire ward structure. Apparently without irony, they want to uphold her legacy of inclusiveness by being exclusive. Openness and transparency are progressive values only when convenient, it seems.

    This is small potatoes In comparison with people losing homes, being unjustly incarcerated, or in danger of being cruelly deported, but it grieves me that my friend is dead only five days and factionalism is already threatening the county party, which was growing and going strong under her leadership. This isn’t the end of the story and there is still hope that we build on the foundation she laid, but may I say that, in this moment of emotional abandon and grief, I hate these fucking splitters and faux progressives? Seriously, in the Age of Trump they need to play purity politics and potentially split the organization? We have elections to win and a state and country to rescue. Fuck these people.

    I’ll recover and behave with a cooler head and heart shortly. But thank you for tolerating my rant.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Sorry if this has already been posted; I haven’t read through all the comments yet. Trump’s private security guy and designated firer, Keith Schilling, evidently wants to leave the WH. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the rumors are not true, so I assume it’ll happen very soon.

    Schiller is the guy who delivered the “You’re fired!” letter to FBI HQ when Trump got tired of Comey, and was also tasked with canning the poor schlub who failed to produce record-breaking crowd numbers in zohoenix last week. I’m sure over the years he’s been asked ordered to carry out plenty of chores that were even more unsavory.

    ETA: Drat you, Kay, for getting there first!

  92. 92.

    TenguPhule

    @pat:

    Speculation in the comments is that they are destroying hard drives and CDs.

    With fire? Aren’t there less hazardous ways of disposal?

  93. 93.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    The question is whether she’s uncomfortable being a horrible person, or if she’s uncomfortable being a horrible person publicly.

    Maybe she’s just uncomfortable standing in front of other people talking. Plenty of people hate, hate, hate public speaking. Not a good thing if you’re a PR representative, though.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    @O. Felix Culpa: I’m so sorry about the loss of your friend. And how crass and horrible that the grievance mongers are attempting to use the tragedy to gain power. That’s just unspeakably scummy.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @pat:

    He is delaying the announcement in order to instill the most fear and apprehension in thousands of innocent people on a holiday weekend.

    That’s why he’s delaying it.
    He is cruel and evil

    I will bet you everything I own that he enjoyed S-L-O-W-L-Y pulling the wings off flies when he was a youngster. Maybe even now.

  103. 103.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    With fire? Aren’t there less hazardous ways of disposal?

    They’re going to care a lot more about effectiveness than safety. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put everything in the fireplace and set off a thermite grenade or something similar on top of the pile.

  104. 104.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: @Betty Cracker: Thanks, both of you. Your kind and understanding words make a difference. I think I’m going to go cry in the shower now. Maybe that will help too. :)

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @The Moar You Know:

    That’s a family that really doesn’t think they have to answer to anyone for anything. Unlike the Trumps, the Huckabees feel utterly justified in everything they’ve done.

    You know that family with a million kids on TV, the one where one of the sons sexually abused his sisters a few years ago? Can’t remember their name, but I’m almost positive the Huckabees came very publicly to the boy’s defense.

  110. 110.

    LurkerNoLonger

    It would be pretty funny if SNL decided to use Melissa McCarthy again this season to play the part of The Possum Queen. Come on, Lorne Michaels, I know you’re reading this.

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    That is tragic on so many levels. You have my deepest sympathy for the loss of your friend, and my partnership in rage that her death has already been turned into a piñata for control of the party. I hope you’re able to focus on her life and legacy over the next few days; time enough for internecine crap. {{{{{hugs}}}}} to you, OFC.

  117. 117.

    Mary G

    @Kay: @SiubhanDuinne: CNN sez:

    Schiller earns a $165,000 annual salary at the White House — a downgrade from his annual earnings before he followed Trump to the White House.

    This is my disbelieving face, or would be if I could find an emoji.

  122. 122.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @schrodingers_cat: @SiubhanDuinne: Thank you for your encouragement. It’s stunning that people who STILL complain about the alleged coronation of a candidate are seeking to do precisely that themselves. I hate this stupid, draining factionalism. We have work to do. Let’s go do it. Eyes on the prize, folks. That’s what our late friend would have wanted and I don’t want her legacy harmed by her so-called gatekeepers. I don’t want to oust them, but rather turn their and all of our energies to winning elections and not fracturing into a million pure little pieces.

  123. 123.

    Mel

    @O. Felix Culpa: I am really sorry, both that you have lost a dear friend and that you are having to deal with other people’s manipulative nonsense during the time when you should just be able to grieve the loss and try to process all the feelings that come with it.

    Please take good care of yourself right now. That is most important.

  125. 125.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @The Moar You Know:

    Interesting. I don’t discount it, but that’s not what I see up there. I see a spoiled, entitled brat is who is utterly furious that she has to answer to anyone for anything

    Anger is typical a bluff to hide their fear.

    Her body langauge is always defensive. Like I said, you want to tell what these people are really thinking watch them talk with the sound off.

  126. 126.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Mel: Yes, grieving her loss needs to be a focus. We met just a few days before her accident and were planning to meet again this week. I can still hear her laugh and her funny verbal tics. She had a kind and generous heart and amazing organizational chops. She galvanized all kinds of people who had never been active before to get involved in the party. We were actually DOING things to prepare for 2018. I hope we can continue in the strength she provided.

    Among other things, she was a fabulous gardener. She had drifts and drifts of irises in her garden, so many that she gave us a bunch to replant this spring when she was thinning them out. For months they looked dry and dubious, but now we see their bright green blades shooting up all over our garden. It looks like we’ll get a beautiful fall showing of her irises. I hope this turns out to be a metaphor for her work in the party too.

  127. 127.

    Mom Says I*m Handsome

    Just wanted to thank Ms Cracker for the correct usage of “flack”. Many higher-paid and lesser-skilled writers would use “flak”, which I think is some sort of airborne shrapnel.

    While I’m here, let me please put in a comment re another word confusion:

    disinterested: neutral or impartial
    uninterested: uninterested

  132. 132.

    Heywood J.

    Sanders looks, sounds, and acts like she’s spent most of her adult life angrily defending her brother’s sadism and her father’s faux-genial theocratism, mostly with the classic retort nuhh-unhhhhh, you are! She probably terrorizes her children.

  133. 133.

    hueyplong

    The worst, and most accurate, thing I can say about Sanders-Huckabee is that she’s a good fit for the Trump Administration.

  134. 134.

    tomtofa

    @Kay:
    If this is true it will be a bigger blow to Trump than one might think. From the CNN article:

    Schiller has been a constant presence at Trump’s side for nearly two decades and was among a handful of aides from Trump’s previous life as a businessman to follow Trump onto the campaign trail and into the White House.

  135. 135.

    rikyrah

    Black students declining at Chicago’s top public high schools and in CPS overall
    By Alden Loury @AldenLoury
    August 31, 2017

    Not everyone is going back to school in Chicago, especially at the city’s elite public high schools

    About 380,000 Chicago public school students will return to classes next week. They are likely to include a diminishing crop of African-American students, most notably at the city’s most prestigious public high schools, shows a Metropolitan Planning Council analysis of Chicago Public Schools data.

    The number of African-American students in CPS has declined each year since at least 1998, the earliest year for which demographic data are available on the district’s website. In addition, black students have now fallen to the bottom among the largest four racial and ethnic groups at the city’s top five selective-enrollment high schools. And the disparity between the percentages of white and black CPS high school students attending those schools is at an all-time high.

    ……………….

    Jones College Prep, Lane Tech, Northside College Prep, Payton College Prep, and Young Magnet high schools are routinely ranked by U.S. News & World Report, Niche and other websites as the top five public high schools in Chicago, among the top 10 in Illinois and among the top 200 in the nation. In its most recent rankings, Niche rated Payton and Northside as the top two public high schools in the U.S.

    In 2016-2017, collectively, the share of black students at those schools dropped to its lowest point since 2000, the earliest year in which all five schools have been in operation. While African Americans comprised almost 40 percent of all high school students in CPS last school year, they made up just 13 percent collectively at those five high schools. It marked the first time that African Americans ranked last in combined enrollment at those schools among the city’s four largest racial and ethnic groups, which also include Asians, Latinos and whites.

    As the share of black students at the top five CPS high schools has declined, the share of white students in those schools has increased. While white students were just 9 percent of all CPS high school students last year, they accounted for nearly 35 percent of students at the city’s top five public high schools—the highest share among all racial or ethnic groups, followed by Latinos at 33 percent and Asians at 14 percent.

    White high school students in CPS are 13 times more likely than their black peers to attend one of the city’s elite public high schools—the widest disparity at any point since all five schools have been in operation. About 39 percent of all white high school students in CPS last year were enrolled in one of those top schools compared with just 3 percent of all black CPS high school students.

  138. 138.

    rikyrah

    Aman Batheja‏Verified account @amanbatheja

    Aman Batheja Retweeted Patrick Svitek

    Governor of Texas just said he won’t call a special session for Harvey aid. Means state won’t tap $10 billion Rainy Day Fund til 2019.

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    On a bit of an up note, I had someone ask me about a sign that says do not run water from hose bib to the street. The sign is on an industrial property and the questioner couldn’t see the reason. I explained to him that run off water from an industrial property could have any number of chemicals in it that should not be in the water system. Many of the drains in CA go right into the ocean so any chemicals could be harming us all. He understood and agreed that was a good idea, even if the sign could be better worded and therefore better understood. I did have to explain it in a context that made a lot of sense for him, that when he was growing up in socal you couldn’t see the mountains that are about 5 miles away, due to smog. But that the changes to autos and to the diesel truck he drives has made it possible to actually be outside because the smog is so dramatically less. The sign is there to make the same change to our water.
    So unlike what we hear about TX, CA is/has made a positive difference to it’s citizens, and it doesn’t seem to have hurt our businesses at all. We have refineries in CA, several of them in fact. We have a couple of very large ports that move ton upon ton of freight daily. And we have a larger population than TX by far. How can that be with all these job killing regulations?

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    Yashar Ali
    ?‏Verified account @yashar

    New: Keith Schiller, who has been with Trump for years, and knows everything, is leaving the White House.

  141. 141.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @rikyrah:

    Governor of Texas just said he won’t call a special session for Harvey aid. Means state won’t tap $10 billion Rainy Day Fund til 2019.

    Why won’t he call the session to tap the funds? They’ve certainly had rainy days and then some, which is what I would have thought this fund was intended for.

  143. 143.

    The Lodger

    @rikyrah: I can hear Peter Sagal now doing Lightning Fill-In-The-Blank:
    “Because Texas Gov. Greg Abbott won’t call the state legislature into session to deal with Hurricane Harvey, they won’t be able to spend money from what?”

  144. 144.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    Governor of Texas just said he won’t call a special session for Harvey aid. Means state won’t tap $10 billion Rainy Day Fund til 2019.

    So entirely dependent on Federal Bailout money then.

    Texas governor is a fucking moocher.

  145. 145.

    TenguPhule

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Why won’t he call the session to tap the funds?

    I’ll take, “because he’s a fucking asshole determined to take advantage of this disaster to suck up as much federal funding as he can” for $500, Alex.

  147. 147.

    J R in WV

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Sounds like with your cooler head you should get together with the county ward chiefs NOT invited to those meetings and schedule a meeting to oppose the pseudo-progressive bros and their attempt to benefit from the death of a real Democratic leader. You might invite a few of those invited to the first Bro meeting, the ones you feel might be offended by the naked power grab.

    Invite a reporter to your inclusive meeting, tell him all about the exclusive, not-inclusive meeting the bro-others held, see what happens when that story hits the evening news or morning paper. Or just talk to friends you know about doing this kind of thing – I’ll bet anything you won’t be alone being upset with this kind of back door work.

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    Also, O. Felix Culpa, sorry to hear of your friend’s sudden accidental death. That’s the most difficult of that kind of loss to deal with. Sudden death of a lively, productive, out-going person.

    Take care, grieve, and then get back to doing the work your friend would have loved to see you all doing.

  150. 150.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @J R in WV: Dead thread, but thank you for both your messages. A number of friends and I are considering joining their meeting and inviting as diverse a group of people as possible to come as well. Just showing up and sitting down with them. Being part of the conversation. They can’t shut us out and if they try, then cell phone videos are a mighty powerful tool, as we have seen.

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