Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Let there be snark.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

We still have time to mess this up!

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

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Sunday Morning Excellent Read / Open Thread: JOY!

Sunday Morning Excellent Read / Open Thread: JOY!

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Many of you will have seen this already, but I agree it’s worth sharing. Laura M. Holson, at the New York Times:

… In the Trump era, Ms. Reid, the daughter of immigrants, has emerged as a heroine of the resistance to his leadership. And her forceful questioning style, matching that on conservative outlets like Fox, has resonated with MSNBC’s viewers. She is popular on social media with fans who fondly call themselves #reiders. Her morning show on Saturday averages nearly 1 million weekly viewers and, for the last four months, she has bested MSNBC’s competitor CNN, according to Nielsen, which tracks television ratings (granted, her competition then is general newsroom updates rather than another headline personality).

“Our prime directive is to constantly remind people that this is not normal and not to allow it to become mundane,” Ms. Reid said in a recent interview at MSNBC’s studios in Midtown Manhattan, referring to the architecture of the Trump presidency. Each week she makes sure to discuss the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. “We feel like one of our duties is to keep that story top of mind because it’s fundamentally about whether we truly choose our own leaders,” she said.

Ms. Reid was born in Brooklyn and raised in Denver alongside two siblings mostly by their mother, a college professor and nutritionist from Guyana; their father left the family when she was a child for his native Democratic Republic of Congo. “He was a phone father,” Ms. Reid said. At 17, she was accepted to Harvard University, where she planned to study medicine.

But her mother died of breast cancer three weeks before school started. “I failed a bunch of classes,” Ms. Reid said. “I was just depressed.” She took a year off, returned to Brooklyn — staying with an aunt and working a temp job at Columbia Pictures — and then switched her major to documentary filmmaking.

“I was thinking Hollywood movies,” she said. “Come to find out Harvard doesn’t do that. So I had to study documentary.”

Ms. Reid had also always been captivated by politics. In the late 1990s she moved to Miami to write for a local television morning show. There, she became a fixture among South Florida lawmakers. She was involved in minority outreach for voter education and blogged. In 2005 she met James Thomas, a longtime disc jockey and radio veteran known as James T, who hired her to produce a talk radio show for listeners in the black community…

Ms. Reid got her television break in 2014 when she was hired by MSNBC to create a daily show called “The Reid Report.” It was short-lived, though, canceled the next year because of poor ratings (along with Ronan Farrow’s). “It was stressful because it was daily,” Ms. Reid said. “There was a lot more management eyes on us. And when it ended, you know, it was not fun. But it did enable me to do something I hadn’t done in my career, which was to actually be a field reporter.”…

In her class for Syracuse, which she teaches in Manhattan, Ms. Reid addresses the precarious definition of what the president calls “fake news,” and why it is a dangerous concept. “Now, something is ‘true’ because you like it,” she said. “If the information is displeasing to you or makes you uncomfortable, or is in opposition to your ideology, then it is ‘fake.’” She is concerned consumers of news will isolate themselves, believing only what makes them feel good. “That’s the problem,” she said…

***********

Apart from applauding our sheroes, what’s on the agenda for the day / week?

Reader Interactions

230Comments

  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    Joy Reid is fantastic. I first became aware of her about 10 years or so ago when she was living in Florida. We were engaged in the ultimate act of online futility: trying to talk some sense into idiots in the comments section of a local newspaper (a cesspool, as are most newspaper comments sections). I’ve followed her career ever since, and it’s gratifying to see someone so talented succeed at the national level. We need ten thousand more Joy Reids.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Today:
    1- Start tomatoes (15 types), peppers (7 sweet, 6 hot), and eggplants (4)
    2- Smoke the polish sausage I stuffed yesterday
    3- Load the trailer with the rest of my recyclables so that tomorrow I can head into STL to dump them and pick up a load of compost.
    4- Cut 8 food grad 55 gal drums in half for planters.
    5- Make my wife happy with slow cooked baby back ribs.

    Even if it comes last, #5 is job 1.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    sheroes

    Really? You had to go there?

    We’ve mostly jettisoned actress, heroine, aviatrix and the like to the status of museum relics or curiosities. Why take a linguistic step backward?

    Shouldn’t be necessary to say it, but do find Reid one of the sharpest implements in the toolbox. Appreciate her skill, her tenacity and her no nonsense delivery.

  6. 6.

    satby

    Good morning everyone! Starting to feel a bit better, but it took the whole week. Went back to the farmers market yesterday for the first time in 3 weeks and had a good day but was wiped out in the evening.

    I have so much to do I don’t know where to start, but planning what seeds to start for next summer will be part of the week’s activities.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    @Ozark Hillbilly

    In one day? Am exhausted merely reading about it.

    Have been procrastinating on cleaning, sanding and painting the refrigerator doors for a week now*. Ragga-fragga stippled finish has reached the point where it is beyond redemption.

    *In my defense it’s also been raining a lot and prefer to tackle it when the air isn’t damp.

  9. 9.

    magurakurin

    @Betty Cracker: and let’s not forget Nomiki Konst, Nina Turner, James Zogby, and the rest of the Vermont Jesus cult wanted her fired for daring to question the perfection of the Prophet.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Not expecting the result to be a candidate for the cover of House Beautiful. So long as it doesn’t look as if a hippopotamus projectile vomited on it I’ll be ecstatic.

  13. 13.

    satby

    The high today is expected to be 40°, so the inch of snow that fell last night should melt, along with the rest of the snow on the ground over the next few days. Going to 63° by Wednesday, then back to temps in the 30s. But the days are getting longer, and spring is coming, I can tell by the mountains of garden catalogs that arrived while I was gone.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Reports are that Mom’s 90th birthday bash went swimmingly. Must have been flying high because she said it had been snowing for a while by the time she got off the train and splurged to take a cab the two blocks to her place instead of walking on snow and ice in the dark while laden with packages of leftovers.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    There are “Ulster Says No” cigarette lighters, Orange Order Christmas decorations and banknotes mocked up with an image of Gerry Adams at the time of the 2004 Northern Bank heist in Belfast. In all, Peter Moloney has collected 40,000 such artefacts, all culled from decades of political turmoil and bloody strife.

    Moloney, a retired London-based architect, has spent 50 years accumulating the largest array of memorabilia relating to the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland – a labour of love that began when he was just 15. And this month he finally packed up the unique historical treasure trove and sent it back to Northern Ireland, where it will go on public display. The exhibition will coincide with what is regarded as the 50th anniversary of the beginning of a bloody chapter, sparked by the Catholic civil rights movement of the late 1960s.

    “I felt that it was time for it to go home,” said Moloney who for decades juggled his day job working as a project manager for local authorities with frequent trips across the Irish Sea to build up the collection.
    ……..
    Giving away the collection has not been easy, particularly as it has been accumulated at considerable cost and, during some of the conflicts’s most fraught times, personal risk. “I got arrested a lot in the years when I was going around collecting things or taking photos, although the longest I was held was 24 hours,” he recalls.

    “Typically, the police would get very excited when they would find, for example, republican propaganda in my bag. But then they would dig deeper and find the loyalist stuff, and that would confuse them. I would say that it was for an academic book that I was going to write, and that would appease them somewhat.”

    On other occasions the unwelcome attention was more menacing. Moloney – who was born in the Republic of Ireland and raised in London – tells of being followed on by suspicious loyalist paramilitaries in the dark days of the 1970s. He emerged unscathed when a friendly shopkeeper, who had recognised him from previous excursions, gave an alibi for what he was doing in the area.

    Moloney decided to give away the hard-earned memorabilia three years ago, following an exhibition in Northern Ireland to which he contributed a bus ticket emblazoned with a confidential police telephone line on which members of the public could report illegally held weapons. “Nobody remembered the bus ticket, yet millions must have been produced. It was the impact of that as it travelled around that was the final catalyst for me in terms of thinking that it, and the rest of the collection, would be of more use in the north.”

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Don’t expect Dolt 45 to follow suit.

    President Vladimir Putin sent a message of condolences, on Sunday noon, to his Iranian counterpart Hassan Ruhani over the crash of the passenger liner ATR-72 of Aseman Airlines in the central province of Iran Isfahan. This is stated in a message on the Kremlin website. Source

    On the lighter side, when opportunity knocks….

  18. 18.

    ThresherK

    “And now, a NYT profile of Joy Ann Reid, who’s helping undo so much of the NYT’s damage by regularly running normalizing profiles of random neo-Nazis.”

    —

    We had no microwave for three months on moving into the apartment, and were donated one by a work friend of my wife’s, as they are redoing their kitchen. Now I’m hoping they get tired of their old espresso maker.

  19. 19.

    Zach

    A couple open threads ago I said Trump wanted to use the Parkland shooting to get rid of Christopher Wray. Everyone said he can’t possibly be that dumb. Well, go see his fever dream tweets from the middle of last night. I predict Wray’s out within the next week or two unless the collusion investigators magically start giving Trump what he wants.

  20. 20.

    germy

    I got a recommendation yesterday, the name of a contractor to hire for some work around this old house.

    I looked at his website, his portfolio looked OK, before and after photos of carpentry and restoration projects.

    So I thought I’d check his twitter page, just to see what’s on his mind.

    First tweet: Him responding to someone tweeting about the florida school shooting. His reply? “Oh yeah? What about all the shooting in the middle east! You hypocrites.”

    Yeah, I’ve had enough. Won’t be hiring him. I just can’t see me paying him money. Sorry pal.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    For this one fleeting moment, the NYT is not garbage. Reid is a treasure. She really should replace Tweety.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    @Zach: I figured the knives were out for Wray when Trump scrote-lick Rick Scott called for his resignation a couple of days ago. I don’t know that the campaign to oust Wray will succeed, but it’s definitely a thing.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Zach: I doubt it. The last time he fired an FBI director it didn’t work out so well for him. He’s just blowing smoke.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning pals. We got a picturesque layer of snow yesterday afternoon; higher temps will melt it in a few hours.

    Yes, Spring is on the way, and the wind is changing, rapidly, on school shootings/mass murder by AR 15s.

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: Agreed. And I have “oh noes, good(ish) guy about to get fired” angst fatigue. Give it a rest.

    Ozark, I have really enjoyed your frost flowers photos. Didn’t get to tell you earlier.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: We’ll have some naysayers along shortly to dispute your second sentence, but I really think it’s true. I’m so damn proud of the high school kids in Florida who are speaking out, like Emma Gonzales. I admire their bravery and determination.

    After that white supremacist murdered the nine people in a Charleston church and folks called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the state capitol building, I said right here on this blog that there was no way that would happen. I was wrong. Change is unthinkable until it happens.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    Hey, has anyone here ever made shakshuka? Think I’m going to give it a whirl later this morning. I’ve never had it, but it sure sounds good.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker: organizing around stopping mass murders by AR 15 is going to be easy. Students, women, moms, the sane, leading the way.

    The whack ass Daddy party is way far off the rails. Who cares if the corporate captured media won’t say that. People can see it, and we don’t need their p ussy-assed gatekeeping anyway.

    Anger at not being able to attend school, work, theaters, concerts, be out in public is powerful.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle: Yep. It may well happen but not because some low level phone agent didn’t properly forward a report and certainly not before an investigation shows large and systemic problems with that particular program. Far more likely for Wray to resign at some point because he is tired of all the BS.

    Glad you enjoyed the pics.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    And I have “oh noes, good(ish) guy about to get fired” angst fatigue. 

    Same here. I think the latest indictment was a watershed event. Hopefully, the investigation is protected for the rest of the year and, next year, we’ll have a Dem Congress as a backstop.

  35. 35.

    germy

    When politicians find themselves under investigation, they tend to brandish.

    MUNICH, Germany — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday issued a stark warning to Iran, saying his nation was prepared to go to war if the Iranians continue to test Israeli red lines in Syria.

    Brandishing what he said was a fragment of an Iranian drone shot down over Israeli territory last week, Netanyahu cited Iran’s efforts to “colonize” Syria with a permanent military base and use the war-ravaged nation as a launch pad for operations in Israel.

    “Israel will not allow Iran’s regime to put the noose of terror around our neck,” he said. “We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act, if necessary, not only against Iranian proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself.”

    The warning came in a widely anticipated speech Netanyahu delivered to the Munich Security Conference, the world’s most prominent gathering of its type. The saber-rattling address was followed later Sunday with a speech by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

    “Mr. Zarif, do you recognize it?” Netanyahu asked as he held the drone fragment aloft. “You should. It’s yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran: Do not test Israel’s resolve.”

    In his own speech, Zarif dismissed Netanyahu’s address as a “cartoonish circus which does not even deserve the dignity of a response.” Zarif also complained of “almost daily incursions into Syrian airspace” and implied Netanyahu was deliberately escalating tensions as a way to distract from his troubles at home.

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Still kind of amazed that Twitler actually ‘went there’ and is trying to say the FBI missed acting on the school shooter because it was tied up trying to prove collusion. As if it was a single person with a choice of only one thing or the other to do on any given day.

    Where’s a rogue agent when you need him?

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Watershed is right. And I think this is going to be way bigger than Watergate.

    We know Mueller is looking into possible NRA money laundering, isn’t he? All the venom directed at the FBI has got to be motivating that part of the investigation team.

  42. 42.

    Barbara

    @Jeffro: The Florida department for family services (whatever it is called) actually did an investigation of Cruz and concluded he was not a threat. The Broward County sheriff’s office had something like two dozen interactions with him. It is not easy to predict violence.

  44. 44.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly: The photo of Bibi waving the fragment over his head reminds me of Mitch McConnell waving the rifle over his head. Almost identical pose.

    @WereBear:

    My tolerance for such is at an all time low.

    Over the years I’ve had all sorts of characters mouth off their stupid political opinions while doing plumbing, etc. in my house. I’ve mostly ignored it because (1) I didn’t want a hassle and (2) I just wanted them to finish up and get out.

    But I’m fed up now. I have schoolteachers in my family. My kids are out of school, but I still worry about them every day on the street and in their workplaces.

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jeffro:
    Twittler apparently thinks the FBI’s 13,400 Special Agents (per Wikipedia’s count) all work on the same case, one at a time.

  46. 46.

    germy

    I also wonder what the world would look like if countries criminally charged all foreigners who covertly & illegally interfered in their elections or political process. It's a good reminder that law – especially international law – is based on power; "justice" is just the costume— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 16, 2018

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @germy: Better. The world would look better.

    ETA: International law is based on power and not justice. But domestic criminal law is not international law.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    @Barbara: thinking of the young man who shot up Isla Vista(?) in Santa Barbara a few years ago. His parents sent the police to his apartment, kid acted normal and passed the welfare check, cops left; he rampaged.

    It’s access to guns. Without the gun, the murders don’t happen. Point is, we can’t tell who is going to do this.

    Stephen Paddock had an arsenal. It is the guns. Everything else is squid ink.

    The military knows this. Our highly trained soldiers are not wandering around armed on military bases.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    The Hill

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says in a new interview that he expects to see Republicans lose seats in the House and Senate this year as the party pushes to retain its majorities in Congress ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

    The top Republican in the Senate told The New York Times for a story published Saturday that “the odds are” his party will face losses in both chambers of Congress this year.

    “The odds are that we will lose seats in the House and the Senate,” McConnell said.

    “History tells you that, the fired-up nature of the political left tells you that. We go into this cleareyed that this is going to be quite a challenging election,” he added.

    Let’s put the turtle back in his she’ll.

  51. 51.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s access to guns. Without the gun, the murders don’t happen

    Yup. And the suicides and gang killings too – far less of each.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    This might help NBC’s dismal Olympics ratings.

    NBC hires Adam Rippon and his golden commentary for the rest of the Olympics

    WaPo

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:

    But domestic criminal law is not international law.

    You noticed how he conflated the 2. I wonder how many of his defenders will. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. Sometimes I just crack me up.

  54. 54.

    germy

    @Jeffro:

    that quote is some straight up Putinspeak bullshit, isn’t it?

    He’s incapable of changing his mind or admitting a mistake, so it should be interesting what sort of shapes he’ll be twisting himself into as more evidence is unearthed.

  55. 55.

    Citizen_X

    On-topic, this:

    her forceful questioning style, matching that on conservative outlets like Fox

    does not match up with someone who says this:

    “Now, something is ‘true’ because you like it,” she said. “If the information is displeasing to you or makes you uncomfortable, or is in opposition to your ideology, then it is ‘fake.’”

    Oh, NYT!

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    If our dotard oresident didn’t have access to the nuclear codes, his pathetic rage tweets would be almost funny.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    wtf is he even talking about

    Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn’t I a great candidate?

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @germy: It’s interesting that he says they will lose seats in the Senate. We only need +2 to get the majority, and this is the worst map we’ll see for 6 years.

  61. 61.

    WereBear

    I think what we are experiencing is the supersaturated solution of our political landscape meeting that molecule-too-many in the form of Trump and his Administration.

    Crystallization.

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I think McTurtle is engaging in a wee bit of fear mongering, dipping as deep as he can into every willing Kochsucker pocket he can find. I really don’t see the Senate flipping in ’18.

  65. 65.

    Lapassionara

    @Betty Cracker: About the Confederate flag removal, as I understand it, the SC business community, and others who wanted it gone, had been talking with their Republican reps for several years about finding a way to get it off the Statehouse grounds. When the families of the victims faced the shooter at the courthouse and expressed forgiveness, a legislator from upstate SC, home to Michelin and the BMW plant immediately proposed the necessary bill.

    So the change looked sudden, but had been in the works for years, waiting for the right moment.

    Lesson for me is just keep laying the groundwork, as you never know when the moment for action may come.

    Good morning all.

  68. 68.

    germy

    Oliver Willis has posted a radio interview with Dog Mayor. (He’s taking calls on a local public radio station, which makes it even more hilarious)

    “I want to be crystal clear: It was wrong to pee on the floor. Even though I believe I heard The Woman coming with my leash and was prepared to relieve myself, I admit I should have waited. I was a bad boy and I deeply regret it. I hope I can continue to serve as dog mayor.”

    https://twitter.com/i/moments/965194615153414144

    “We are as concerned as everybody else about where the ball went. The police department is recreating the crime scene where The Man appeared to throw the ball, but there was in fact no ball. It is a vexing mystery to my entire team.”

  70. 70.

    Adria McDowell

    @Elizabelle: “The military knows this. Our highly trained soldiers are not wandering around armed on military bases.”

    Exactly this. Having a weapon (or even a knife past a certain length) in an Army barracks is a big no-no. It’ll be confiscated and put into the arms room. I don’t know about the other services, though.

    This obsession with guns is an outcropping of the Civil Rights movement, IMHO. Right wing yahoos are always going on about a race war they are hell bent on starting if swarthy people start “getting out of line.”

  71. 71.

    satby

    @Baud: a few Repubs, like rMoney if he wins in Utah, would probably join the Democrats in voting to convict, especially if it’s a wave election. The only conviction they have is their own self-preservation.

  72. 72.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: That bigoted Fox News executive who claimed that the American Olympic team was too dark, gay and and different must be gloating. He knows that diversity is always to blame for America’s woes. Just like his bigoted President.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    @JPL: You can’t say he moved on because he was never really there.

    @satby: I think it’s worth the effort. Just pointing out that we’ll need GOP help regardless of the election outcome.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Forget impeachment, forget conviction. It takes 67 Senators to convict. Until that threshold can be reached, there is no point in wasting energy and resources on impeachment. Should DEMs take the house.you can expect endless committee investigations with ever more lurid leaks. Think Benghazi with actual facts and crimes being investigated instead of a made up fantasy.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: You know, there are some longtime Republicans who probably detest the Fox News Republicans their party is infested with.

    I would not rule out that a Lamar Alexander, or even a new Senator Mitt Romney (whenever that election is), wouldn’t vote to convict. They might very well do so.

    And we don’t know if Turtle and others won’t be out, having resigned over indictments of their own, for money laundering, conspiracy, what have you.

    I think a sea change is underway, and we don’t know the moving parts yet. I hope Mueller’s team is looking far and wide. This has been a cancer on the country. Excise it. If the election process is so fucked up that voters cannot remove bad actors, then let a great cleansing take place.

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: Trump is stupidly claiming that the Mueller investigation has exonerated him and Republicans of colluding with Russia. Not true. Mueller’s investigation is ongoing. I have no doubt where Mueller’s investigation will lead and Trump will not be happy with its conclusions. Believe me!

  78. 78.

    germy

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Trump is stupidly claiming that the Mueller investigation has exonerated him and Republicans of colluding with Russia.

    Hannity and others at Fox are saying that. (Which is where he gets his information.)

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy:

    “We are as concerned as everybody else about where the ball went. The police department is recreating the crime scene where The Man appeared to throw the ball, but there was in fact no ball. It is a vexing mystery to my entire team.”

    They need some Labradors on that team. Absolutely relentless in those types of investigations. They will not stop searching until they find the ball.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Say DEMs got a 52 seat majority. Can you name 15 Repubs who will side with DEMs knowing they will be primaried out of office at the first opportunity?

  83. 83.

    germy

    Dog 911: what’s ur emergency?

    Dog: MY HUMAN WENT TO WORK

    Dog 911: so?

    Dog: WHAT IF THIS TIME HE DOESN’T COME BACK

    Dog 911: OMG

    Dog: OMG

  84. 84.

    germy

    DOG 911: what’s ur emergency

    DOG: MY BALL IS UNDER THE COUCH

    DOG 911: u try barking at it?

    DOG: IT DIDN’T WORK

    DOG 911: OMG

    DOG: OMG

  85. 85.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JPL: Schiff is blaming President Obama for Russian meddling? Hmmm. That would be odd if he was doing that but Trump is such a liar that I doubt it is true. I guess hindsight is 20/20 because President Obama should have sounded the alarm once he discovered Russia’s meddling even though McConnell and Ryan were threatening to kick up a storm if he did so. Don’t see how it would have hurt. Oh well.

  86. 86.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    I think it’s also very important to push back against this red herring of “mental illness.” Too many people think that mental illness is confined to those with diagnosed disorders and so doesn’t include them; when in fact, the real cause for all these shootings is rage. Rage may be defined as a mental illness, but it’s the one illness that every single person is susceptible to.

  87. 87.

    germy

    @Patricia Kayden:

    That bigoted Fox News executive who claimed that the American Olympic team was too dark, gay and and different must be gloating. He knows that diversity is always to blame for America’s woes. Just like his bigoted President.

    “We could use a skater like Tonya Harding again…”

  92. 92.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: I don’t care. Just dying for Mueller to hurry up with his investigation so the whole lot can be indicted.

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I think the “mental illness” tag just allows them to discriminate against troubled people who are absolutely no threat to anyone.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Mueller’s investigation ends when he’s finished and not before. Trump’s never been the subject of a real criminal investigation before. It’s not what Trump is used to- it’s not the civil system. What he says has no effect on what happens- he can’t buy or threaten these people and once the big criminal justice machine gets rolling you can’t really throw a wrench into it because there has to be a conclusion, an end. They work until they say they’re done.

    It’s incredibly stressful for ordinary people to be investigated and it must be that much more stressful for coddled, privileged people like Trump and (most of) his low quality hires. The lack of control over events is what’s stressful. He sits and he waits to see what Mueller does next. That’s all he can do.

    It’s fascinating to watch because Mueller is silent, right? So much noise from one side and silence from the other. You only hear “from Mueller” thru those indictments. That must drive Trump crazy – it probably makes it scarier for him.

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Dream about an ever increasing parade of trump admin officials lying thru there teeth to multiple congressional committees and being hit with contempt of Congress charges when contradictory evidence emerges. Should DEMs win in November, those dreams will be realized.

  102. 102.

    germy

    @debbie:

    An actual fragment or a cartoon drawing of one?

    It’s an actual large fragment of… something. In the photo he holds it up over his head, trying to scare the crap out of his audience so they’ll forget the multiple indictments.

  103. 103.

    Patricia Kayden

    @germy: That’s kind of sad because I recall a case on Cesar Millan’s show where that is exactly what happened and the dog wasn’t rescued right away. Sorry to be such a bummer.

  104. 104.

    Citizen_X

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, but they’re trying to “both sides” her, as if both were factional propaganda, while she’s pointing out what propaganda is.

  105. 105.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:
    2020! Baud will bring the Cleanse we want. The high colonic we need!

    ETA. I’m just offering a small amendment to the slogan

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    This actually is how people who don’t feel they should be subject to the criminal system act- privileged spoiled people- they whine and insist they want it over because it upsets them and gets in the way of their plans and they’re used to controlling situations, not passively waiting.

    But it doesn’t work like that. Trump has to wait like everyone else involved in the criminal justice system.

  108. 108.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay:

    It’s incredibly stressful for ordinary people to be investigated and it must be that much more stressful for coddled, privileged people like Trump and (most of) his low quality hires

    It’s probably especially stressful for Trump because he knows dang well that he’s guilty as hell. I’d be stressed out too if I knew that an intelligent, methodical, professional lawyer like Mueller was coming after me. Trump knows what Mueller will find. He knows what he has done to get into the White House. We are going to find out through Mueller and Trump can’t do a dang thing about that.

    By the way, if Trump didn’t collude with Russia, why hasn’t he announced actions his administration plans to take against Russia for its proven interference? What is he waiting for? Why hasn’t he implemented the sanctions he signed into law? Isn’t it odd that the President of the U.S. does nothing to a country which interfered with its election and only focuses on how Mueller’s investigation (so far) hasn’t indicted him? Not normal.

  109. 109.

    germy

    @Citizen_X:

    Cat 911: What’s ur emergency?

    Cat: Idk I just knocked this phone on the floor

    Cat 911: I don’t care

    Cat: I don’t care

    Cat 911: I don’t c

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    The Trump Family have also skated a lot. Ivanka and Don Jr. were exchanging emails outlining how they defrauded investors and NYC prosecutors were aware of the emails and the potential fraud and yet did nothing. They were treated differently than other people were- they were protected by the same entities that were supposed to prosecute.

    They’ve never been held accountable before. It must seem outrageous and unfair to people like them who lived in this coddled protected world for 2 generations.

  111. 111.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    I agree with all you are saying. The criminal justice system is so persistent when it gets on a path. When I look at every one of Trump’s (and Fox’s) reaction to each indictment I see attempts to DO SOMETHING! To regain control. All this going-nowhere talk about Wray is Trump’s attempt to do something, shift blame, take control, counterpunch at a perceived enemy…
    But he is impotent against the Mueller team’s investigation. There really are no levers that can be pulled to gain control. And this is probably maddening, perhaps literally, for a guy like Trump.

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: I like the way Mueller is rolling out solid indictments and plea agreements, little by little. Drip, drip, drip.

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    @Patricia Kayden:

    And surprise, surprise, Tonya Harding is a Trump supporter because of course a violent bully supports a violent bully.

    Funny. Many of the reviews of “I, Tonya” defend her as an innocent lamb led astray by her mother and the bad men in her life, and try to refashion her into a Trailer Trash Madonna.

    But yeah, in the real world, her support of Trump is not surprising. Sad, but not surprising.

  116. 116.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I’m hoping the NRA (esp. that creep LaPierre) is also beginning to feel the tightening of an invisible noose.

  117. 117.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:

    people like them who lived in this coddled protected world for 2 generations.

    I often wonder what the Kushner narrative about his father’s jail time is — I mean, did Jarrod learn nothing about the persistence of the federal prosecutors? Or do they tell themselves that it was just a family dispute — a little rough and tumble between business men — and that the prosecution was a witch hunt?

  118. 118.

    germy

    @Brachiator: She’s been a bully on her latest publicity tour. Interviewers are NOT allowed to talk about the kneecapping, or they’ll be fined 25 thousand bucks.

    I can think of a few skaters who should have had movies made about them. For example the young Black lady who was cheated out of her gold medal, and refused to play along with the judges.

  120. 120.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah: When the Slytherin Governor of Florida immediately called for Wray’s resignation, I predicted he was covering up for FDLE failures.

  121. 121.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    Those American athletes had been in training for the Olympics since Obama was President. So you know whose fault it really is.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I don’t know if he’s guilty of coordination. I go back and forth. He’s been sued for 50 years because he’s a sleazy, dishonest businessman so if he did coordinate I would think he would keep his hands off it.

    What Mueller won’t EVER be able to “prove” is to what extent Russian interference influenced voter behavior. That is impossible to prove. So get used to that.

    Whether or not Mueller finds Trump Team “coordinated” with Russia they will continue to deny it influenced the election. They can do that because there will never be any way to know the answer to that question.

    It’ll be odd because what we’ll have is a huge group of political operatives arguing that campaigns don’t influence elections.

    The same people who said Clinton lost because she “didn’t go to Wisconsin” will then have to argue that campaigns don’t influence outcomes at all to defend Trump. They’re already switching to this position, because they have to.

    If Russia ran a political campaign for Trump (they did- that’s established now) it then becomes necessary to say campaigns don’t matter in elections, because if campaigns DO matter then Trump was assisted by Russia.

    You will see them all doing back flips to protect Trump because they’re not just protecting Trump- they’re protecting the legitimacy of political media and the “campaign industrial complex” which is a multi-billion dollar BUSINESS.

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    @debbie:
    Mental illness only comes up cause he’s White.
    If he were Black, Muslim or Undocumented, it wouldn’t matter if he’d had a standing therapist appointment. Mental illness would not be brought up- EVER.

  126. 126.

    Lapassionara

    @Patricia Kayden: I wish I were confident that he realizes his guilt. I think he has such an entrenched defense mechanism in his psyche that he does not ever think that anything he does is illegal or immoral.

  129. 129.

    Schlemazel

    @Brachiator:
    I have not seen the movie but I always thought Harding was not 1-dimensional, she is neither a monster nor innocent. In some ways she is a victim of a situation she was forced into and in others the victimizer. But she is exactly what I think of when I think of a Dump supporter, thinks way too much of herself & externalizes all blame for the situation as if she were helpless.

    @germy:
    Surya Bonaly? The rap on her was like that on Harding, “too physical” and not graceful enough. In Bonaly’s case the fact that she was black made it very easy to diss her style. But she showed real grace & poise in handling it unlike Harding

  130. 130.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I just wish someone would do something about it. The same group in the Russian government who ran a campaign for Donald Trump are now flooding the internet with pro-gun messages. They’re doing this in response to the latest kid-slaughter.

    They didn’t just campaign for Trump. They campaign for the GOP platform and they’re still doing it.

    I want someone in government to do something about this. Now. It didn’t end with electing Trump- they simply shifted to supporting Trump’s agenda.

  131. 131.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah: LAO noted earlier this week that Mueller’s team was in court early this past week. I thought it was probably about the Gates flip, but it could have (also) been about the indictment announcement.

    Either way, a very bad week for Trump. I love how Mueller let it go toward the end of the week so that it would dominate for days.

  133. 133.

    pluky

    @Baud: Really? How about they cut by an order of magnitude the useless color commentary, nauseatingly maudlin “up close and personal” crap, and the just this side of jingoistic “USA, USA” pandering. Show the damn events, preferably covered by someone who actually knows what’s going on.

  136. 136.

    Immanentize

    Also adding — Trump was given a heads up and briefed on the indictments a day before they were released. That means every communications expert in the WH and probably the Republican Party were working on coordinated messages for at least a day before the indictments were made public. And their response has been very weak — no collusion! — Rilly? That’s all you got?

    They appear to be out of their depth in deep Doo Doo.

  137. 137.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah: And then kid went and bought an AR 15, legally, in a state where it’s easier to buy an AR 15 than a handgun.

    You really cannot make this shit up. And it has got to stop.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I’m really grateful to Mueller for not being a Ken Starr media star. After Trump and all his low quality hires I don’t think I could have handled it if the special prosecutor ALSO turned out to be a self-serving, egotistical and arrogant joke of a “public servant”.

    This is serious. It should be dealt with by serious people, not this cast of Fox News celebrities.

  140. 140.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah:
    I’ll flip that around a bit — I can well imagine a police department having 37 interactions with a black teenager, just ‘cuz….

  141. 141.

    Brachiator

    @Immanentize:

    All this going-nowhere talk about Wray is Trump’s attempt to do something, shift blame, take control, counterpunch at a perceived enemy

    But he is impotent against the Mueller team’s investigation. There really are no levers that can be pulled to gain control.

    Great summary of the Trump Method.

    But the thing is that to some degree this has worked well for him before, especially in the political realm, because he has been able to convince the rubes, his supporters and the GOP leadership, to bail him out. However, there is a terrible cost for all this as he will bring down the government if it means preserving his own worthless ass.

  142. 142.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Lapassionara: I’m pretty certain he knows he is guilty. The thing is he has been guilty of many things many times in his life but he never had to pay for it before and can’t see why he should have to pay for it now. The uber rich always think laws are for little people because that is what society tells them.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I genuinely do not know.

    I expect the biggest threat to the Trump people is uncovering general white collar criminal activity, because they’re all sleazy crooks of one variety or another. I don’t think Jared Kushner is comfortable with a prosecutor looking at his family business under ANY circumstances, coordination with Russia or not.

    These people are crooks. They steal. They lie. They defraud and harm people. They’re no different than ordinary criminals. They would have been better off staying in the private sector where their sleazy business practices were allowed to continue by corrupt local prosecutors in the individual jurisdictions where they run their businesses. They shouldn’t have taken it national.

  144. 144.

    japa21

    @Kay:

    Whether or not Mueller finds Trump Team “coordinated” with Russia they will continue to deny it influenced the election. They can do that because there will never be any way to know the answer to that question.

    It’ll be odd because what we’ll have is a huge group of political operatives arguing that campaigns don’t influence elections.

    The same people who said Clinton lost because she “didn’t go to Wisconsin” will then have to argue that campaigns don’t influence outcomes at all to defend Trump. They’re already switching to this position, because they have to.

    Great point. Hadn’t thought of that one. This blog is blessed with so many super smart people.

  146. 146.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    You gotta love Dylan:

    They say that patriotism is the last refuge
    To which a scoundrel clings
    Steal a little and they throw you in jail
    Steal a lot and they make you king

    (president just doesn’t rhyme like “king” which is probably what Trump thinks he is, so there.)

  147. 147.

    Kay

    I love how Trump has this idea that a prosecutor can or will ignore criminal behavior/acts that are unrelated to the original investigation but are uncovered in the course of the investigation.

    That isn’t how the criminal system works. But it IS probably Trump’s experience of the civil system, where he was able to limit the inquiry into one part or piece of the sleazy empire.

  149. 149.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    Also, it is another proof that Trump reads nothing because Mueller’s remit (which is only like a page long for Chrissy Sake) includes specific “and whatever else you uncover” language.

  150. 150.

    germy

    Not so fast, Libs:

    Great Pollster John McLaughlin now has the GOP up in the Generic Congressional Ballot. Big gain over last 4 weeks. I guess people are loving the big Tax Cuts given them by the Republicans, the Cuts the Dems want to take away. We need more Republicans!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

  151. 151.

    Brachiator

    @Lapassionara:

    I wish I were confident that he realizes his guilt.

    It’s not like Trump is ever going to confess to anything.

    And I don’t think that Trump sees himself as guilty of anything. He wants what he wants and will do anything to get it. Guilt is for little people.

  152. 152.

    Jeffro

    Whew, the Moron-In-Chief is on a tear this morning…I hope the blind panic is rattling that ol’ ticker!

    Did not notice until just now that his Twitter page banner has a pic of him smiling and flashing a big thumbs-up…at the meeting of GOP officials in Parkland(!) Every other fucker in the picture, Rubio included, has common sense to at least dial it back. But not president* scumbag.

  155. 155.

    GregB

    @Kay:

    The same propagandists were posting pictures on social media of bruised, bleeding white women and claiming that they were attacked by Black people when they went to see Black Panther.

    The depravity of what is still going on is so revolting it is tough to process.

  156. 156.

    Chyron HR

    @germy:

    I guess people are loving the big massacres given to them by Republicans, which Democrats want to take away! We need more blood! (thumbs up)

  157. 157.

    Brachiator

    @japa21:

    The same people who said Clinton lost because she “didn’t go to Wisconsin” will then have to argue that campaigns don’t influence outcomes at all to defend Trump. They’re already switching to this position, because they have to.

    Both propositions can be true. The Russians tried to influence the election and Clinton might have won had she gone to Wisconsin and a few other key states.

  159. 159.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle:

    in a state where it’s easier to buy an AR 15 than a handgun.

    That is every state in the union. By Federal law, handguns can not be purchased by anyone younger than 21, long guns by anyone younger than 18.

  160. 160.

    Amir Khalid

    @rikyrah:
    Mueller’s team are competent, disciplined, professional, and focused on their mission. These are not qualities Trump understands, or prizes in his people and his administration. So no one in Trumpland seems to understand what Mueller is doing or where he is headed, which is fairly obvious to the rest of us even if the fine details are still secret. That’s why the Lord and the serfs of Trumpland are taken by surprise at Mueller’s every move, that’s why they can only make frantic and implausible denials of guilt, and that’s why the Schade they suffer with each indictment brings us so much Freude.

  161. 161.

    PPCLI

    @germy: Are you talking about Debi Thomas? In Calgary 1988? Watch her error-plagued performance in the long program compared to Elizabeth Manley’s spectacular, flawless display and tell me Thomas didn’t get the ranking she deserved. Witt was more subdued in her Carmen because she was conservatively protecting a lead but was also clearly better.

    Thomas does have a fascinating life story which would make a great movie, but that doesn’t require us to follow the american sports media and uncritically credit every complaint American athletes make.

  166. 166.

    oldgold

    @realDonaldTrump
    If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!

    @joshtpm
    Has he thought through that their strategy for creating chaos was to elect Donald Trump?

    No!

  172. 172.

    hilts

    @Jeffro:

    TRUMP SLAMMED FOR LACK OF EMPATHY AFTER THUMBS UP PICTURES WITH FLORIDA SHOOTING FIRST RESPONDERS

    @RobertMaguire_
    Trump just changed his Twitter banner to him grinning and giving a thumbs up while meeting with people who just responded to a deadly school shooting

    @mishacollins
    Doesn’t look like you’re heart is too heavy. You are smiling ear-to-ear and giving a big thumbs-up in all of these pictures. Seems like you’re just excited to be in front of the cameras.

    @Call_YourMom
    “To give a thumbs-up like you just had a great dinner. No empathy. Disgusting. Go away.”

    @mcbridetd
    Trump visits injured in FL hospital after tragic #Parkland shooting, flashes thumbs up, and smile.
    Tone deaf

    http://www.newsweek.com/trump-slammed-lack-empathy-after-thumbs-pictures-florida-shooting-first-810167?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=yahoo_news&utm_campaign=rss-related&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/news

  174. 174.

    Brachiator

    @satby:

    toxic male rage. Only two mass shooters were female, I believe.
    Edit: three, including the wife of that guy in California.

    Toxic female rage may express itself in other ways. Arson and poison. And, trying to avoid myths and stereotypes…

    But as Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook, points out: 60.5% of poisoners are dudes, leaving only 39.5% of poisonings to the ladies.

    Still, compared to other methods for murder, 39.5% of poisoners being female is fairly high — from 2006 to 2010, women represented 21% of arson cases, and only 7.9% of gun murders. There are still many more female arsonists and shooters because those are more popular crimes — in the sample years there were only 49 poisonings total — but it’s still notable. Basically, if someone was poisoned, it’s not particularly likely that the murder was committed by a woman — but if a woman murders someone, it’s somewhat likely it was by poison.

    https://www.thehairpin.com/2014/12/that-girl-is-poison-a-brief-incomplete-history-of-female-poisoners/

  175. 175.

    germy

    @hilts: Compare with the photo of Obama, sitting quietly alone in a classroom with his head in his hands, after spending hours with victims of a school shooting.

  178. 178.

    GregB

    @Betty Cracker:

    As to the guns issue. The NRA has gotten their way with politicians and America for 30/40 years. They told us an armed society is a polite society. This is the world they built.

    People are seeing that now, quite clearly.

  179. 179.

    debbie

    Wow, this is presidential:

    If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

  181. 181.

    PPCLI

    @Kay: Trump, Don Junior, and all of their minions sure re-tweeted those Russian bot accounts a lot, so they must have thought they were having an effect.

  183. 183.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Right. Except the goal was to elect Donald Trump and the far Right to create discord and chaos. Which worked, incidentally.

    I know it’s impolite to mention it but that school shooter? He hates black people, immigrants, gay people and “liberals”. He’s obviously a psychopath but let’s tell the truth about this. This guy had opinions and those opinions didn’t align with Obama. They aligned with the far Right which also aligns with the Russian government. There’s a LOT of fucking overlap here! You’d have to be blind not to see it. It should be discussed.

  184. 184.

    Kay

    @PPCLI:

    Trump asked for their help! He told those crowds he wanted Wikileaks to steal from Clinton.

    Wikileaks were working to elect Trump.

  185. 185.

    hilts

    @germy:

    On a daily, often an hourly, basis Trump proves he’s the dumbest President we’ve ever had. Not only is he stone cold stupid, he doesn’t have any gravitas. As this photo-op demonstrates, he’s incapable of grasping the gravity of the situation. He can’t bring himself to show empathy for fellow citizens. It reminds me of his paper towel toss when he visited Puerto Rico. When he knows that the cameras are rolling, all Trump can ever think about is himself. He’s a selfish, ignorant puke stain and everyone else in his family is an asshole and a grifter.

  186. 186.

    Kay

    @hilts:

    This is also impolite to say but these people are weirdos. They don’t know how to act. Melania doesn’t know how to act either. That odd 50 yard stare she’s settled on is bizarre. WTF is wrong with them? The students exhibit more self-awareness than the President and his team.

    They don’t express ordinary human emotion. That photo is bizarre. Some of the non-Trump people IN the photo seem to realize it’s inappropriate. No one in Trump’s orbit thinks it’s weird because they all fucking oddballs too. The bottom of the barrel.

  188. 188.

    Kay

    @hilts:

    It isn’t limited to Trump, either. Betsy DeVos behaves as if she;s been sealed inside some far Right political chamber for 50 years.

    She doesn’t know how to act in public. You should see her public appearances. It’s a group of normal people desperately trying to accomodate this stiff, off-putting oddball leading the show. Any random public school principal is better at it than she is. How did she GET this far? She has no talent of any kind in a public role.

  189. 189.

    germy

    @Kay:

    They don’t know how to act.

    It’s always been like this throughout history, but it seems the reason we can’t have nice things is because of severely damaged people.

    Trump can’t maintain a real relationship. Even with his current wife. There’s no real affection.

    In the nymag profile of GG, it’s mentioned that he was an angry high school student who took a can of spray paint and squirted a bunch of hateful stuff about teachers and other students on a wall. (he was a non-violent school shooter)

    Wilmer couldn’t hold a job; couldn’t really make a living for himself until he shambled into politics.

    Julian has a deep-seated hatred of women. What was done to him during his formative years?

    These profoundly damaged people are the reason why so much sucks today. They destroy faster than we can build sometimes.

  190. 190.

    Kay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I was surprised that the Russian government went after normal people in that statement after the indictment- said they were easily fooled. That seems like an escalation to me. It also seems like a dumb move. You don’t slag on Trump VOTERS.

  191. 191.

    WereBear

    @Kay: WTF is wrong with them?

    It’s rare to see so many malignant narcissists gathered together in one place. They don’t have a normal person among them to mimic.

  192. 192.

    JPL

    @debbie: He’s meeting with Paul Ryan this afternoon. I assume his staff felt the optics of playing golf might look bad, so instead they let him rant.

  193. 193.

    Kay

    @germy:

    I think Glenn Greenwald is a frustrated prosecutor. It’s good he never got the job, though. He would have been terrible- moralistic, crusading, over-reaching. A nightmare.

    He wants power. It’s good he never got state power because state power is unique in that it can imprison. He’s not ranting against the powerful. He’s ranting because he’s not one of them.

  195. 195.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Right now, there’s an argument on my FB feed as to whether or not he was part of a white supremacist group, as if it’s wrong to besmirch white supremacists!

  196. 196.

    Kay

    @WereBear:

    They don’t have a normal person among them to mimic.

    Hah! It makes me uncomfortable watching them because I have this knee jerk thing in those situations to SMOOTH it over- maintain the fiction. I want the play to go off well and they’re jarring and out of place.

    It’s all just so gross. You know they left there and attended a “Studio 54” event at Mar a Lago, right? Imagine that fucking gross event where old rich people recreate the 1980’s. They’re ..decadent. It’s all self indulgence.

  198. 198.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    No, I think that’s a valid question. I think it was reported (incorrectly) that he was a “member” when he was not a “member”.

    This is just conversations he had online with fellow young racists – informal. Not “a group”. But. He said he hates gay and black and Jewish and liberal people in those conversations. That happened.That’s what he said.

    I believe there is also a photo of him wearing a MAGA hat. Which is not illegal! But he did wear the Trump hat.

  199. 199.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Love it! A bunch of comments start off with “Maybe it was a bad idea 
.” Wonder if they can get this to trend?

  201. 201.

    germy

    @Kay: I didn’t see him in a MAGA hat in any of the network news shows. It wasn’t until we watched “Inside Edition” last night (mostly silly celebrity news) that we saw footage of him in his red MAGA cap, aiming his pistol at neighbors and shooting at chickens.

    ABC, CBS and NBC news seemed somehow too embarrassed to show the MAGA hat.

  202. 202.

    danielx

    The shitgibbon went on a nine hour twitter ragegasm, claiming “they are laughing their asses off in Moscow”.

    I have no doubt they are, if not for the same reasons that lord shortfingers thinks. In other news, those officials charged with dealing with other countries are telling various European leaders to pay no attention to the twittering fool behind the curtain. Additional proof, as though it were needed, that we have indeed gone through the mirror and down the rabbit hole.

  206. 206.

    hilts

    @Kay:

    Melania probably never spent one second thinking about the role of First Lady during the campaign because she never thought Trump would win. If reports are to be trusted, Melania didn’t want to be First Lady. I don’t want her to be first lady either. Hopefully, the Mueller investigation will turn up something to put her out of her misery.

    With all of his horrible appointments, Trump has given us a kakistocracy. He’s selected the most incompetent and corrupt individuals to run the executive branch. The Democrats must take control of 1 or both chambers of Congress in 2018 to put the brakes on this lunatic.

  207. 207.

    Immanentize

    @JPL: Sorry, had to step away and feed the Immp….
    There is no crime of collusion, you are right. That is why they keep using the word. It has no normative value. However, criminal conspiracy or aiding and abetting have very specific definitions in the criminal code later supported (and often expanded) by federal court decisions. I told my students this semester that the word “collusion” is banned, but “conspiracy” is the right term for criminality. And for conspiracy, you only need to agree to do something that is illegal — like participate in the hacking of emails or even distribute those emails that you knew were hacked. I.e. fencing emails.

  208. 208.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    In the nymag profile of GG, it’s mentioned that he was an angry high school student who took a can of spray paint and squirted a bunch of hateful stuff about teachers and other students on a wall. (he was a non-violent school shooter)

    In some ways, young GG sounds a lot like that reprehensible Trump advisor Stephen Miller when he was a teen.

  218. 218.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Trump really has no idea what a disgusting pig he is. No self-reflection there at all. Hell for Trump would be if he could truly see himself for even a moment. Perhaps if he ends up spending years in jail he will have time to develop a bit of self-reflection.

  219. 219.

    glory b

    Speaking of Joy Reid’s show, GOOD BLACK DON’T CRACK, BUT OMG, ERIKA ALEXANDER LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME WAY SHE DID 25 YEARS AGO!!!!

  220. 220.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    Perhaps if he ends up spending years in jail he will have time to develop a bit of self-reflection.

    Actually, that’s worked for Bernie Madoff.

  221. 221.

    J R in WV

    Wondering how, why young Trump was pulled out of public school and sent to Military school way back when?

    That was expensive even then, and Fred Trump seemed like a real tight wad, even compared to fearless leader Trump. He wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t seemed important to Fred, right? What did little Donald Trump do that got him sent up like that?

    Inquiring minds want to know… what was the first step off the main line into error and deceit?

  223. 223.

    patrick II

    @Immanentize:

    . And for conspiracy, you only need to agree to do something that is illegal — like participate in the hacking of emails or even distribute those emails that you knew were hacked.

    I think that makes most of the media guilty of conspiracy.

  226. 226.

    Miss Bianca

    @Barbara:

    The Broward County sheriff’s office had something like two dozen interactions with him. It is not easy to predict violence.

    I may be going out on a limb here, but I’d say that if a *white boy in FL* has had something like “two dozen interactions” with the sheriff’s office, then it is pretty damn easy to predict violence.

    Unless you’re the white guy sheriff, evidently. Then it’s all “WHOCOODAKNODE”, as our blog host likes to put it.

  227. 227.

    Ruckus

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Not normal.

    This is true, there is nothing normal about drumpf. Everything is abnormal.
    I agree with germy, if you are thinking of hiring anyone to do some work at your home, or looking to purchase something, check out the people involved and pass if they are drumpfers, or even just plain assholes, if at all possible.
    They care only about their personal bank accounts, let’s help them get smaller.
    Don’t buy products or services from them unless it just can not be avoided. I actively work at this as much as possible/realistic. It ain’t much but every little bit helps.

  228. 228.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    I typed up a nice post but my last line was “Of course if the subject is a person of color then the above is all gibberish” and so I just erased it, based on the fact that this line said more than all the rest of the post.
    Damn, do we have a lot of work to do in this country or what?

  229. 229.

    LesGS

    @Betty Cracker: I make shakshuka about twice a month, usually for dinner. But if you like huevos rancheros for breakfast (which I do), you might like ’em for breakfast too.

    Super easy to make!

  230. 230.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    Trump really has no idea what a disgusting pig he is.

    I think it’s worse than this. It’s not only that he doesn’t see what we see, he sees the exact opposite. He sees perfection and the rest of us are shit. Anyone who is a massive narcissist sees himself in this light, and he is one massive narcissist.

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