Some folks say Trump is just the logical extension of a white nationalist strain in the Republican Party that began with Nixon’s Southern strategy; inspired Reagan to kick off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi; germinated HW Bush’s Willie Horton ad; led W Bush’s dirty tricksters to spread rumors about John McCain’s adopted daughter; and culminated in the racist freak-out during President Obama’s two terms in office.
That’s all true. But there were exit ramps along the way. The Republican Party faced a hard choice after Romney’s defeat. They could adapt to changing American demographics or lose. Trump offered a third option: stop tinkering on the margins with voter suppression and dog whistles and go all in on racism, sexism and xenophobia and openly subvert American democracy to keep white folks in power by whatever means necessary.
The vast majority of the party chose door number 3. Now we not-Republicans face a choice: utterly defeat the Republican Party or watch as the U.S. morphs into an apartheid state and its law enforcement organizations engage in a never-ending ethnic cleansing project. Does that sound crazy or extreme? I don’t think it is.
A woman who personifies the shitty choice the Republicans made and the atrocities their leadership figures are increasingly willing to engage in is current Homeland Security Director Kirstjen Nielsen. Here’s an excerpt from an article in The Post yesterday that treats her as a sympathetic figure:
The president has chastised her on several occasions this spring, including a much-publicized meeting earlier this month when he attacked her in front of the entire Cabinet. He has grown furious because his administration has made little progress building the border wall, and his most ardent supporters have blamed Nielsen for not doing more to halt the caravan of Central American migrants whose advance Trump saw as a personal challenge.
He has also seen her as a proxy for Kelly, whose relationship with the president has frayed in recent months. Trump has decided, according to several aides, that Nielsen is a George W. Bush kind of Republican, the worst in his view.
Nielsen has complained that it is almost an impossible task working for Trump, according to administration officials and others familiar with her thinking, and that he doesn’t understand the nuances of immigration law…
“The president has a very rudimentary understanding of what the border is all about and how you secure it,” said a former DHS staffer who worked closely with Nielsen. “And she’s also not one of the border fire-eaters that have his ear right now. She’s in an impossible, no-win situation.”
There might not be a way to “win” on Trump’s terms, but there is a way to do what’s right: Resign, and go on every network and explain why you’re not willing to shit on the U.S. Constitution. But that’s not what Nielsen is doing. Instead, she is indulging the ignorant demagogue in his “shock and awe” scheme to demonize immigrants and rile up the racist, xenophobic base to consolidate (white) power:
The night before Trump delivered his first speech to Congress in February 2017, he huddled with Jared Kushner and Miller in the Oval Office to talk immigration… Trump reminded them the crowds loved his rhetoric on immigrants along the campaign trail. Acting as if he was at a rally, he then read aloud a few made up Hispanic names and described potential crimes they could have committed, like rape or murder. Then, he said, the crowds would roar when the criminals were thrown out of the country — as they did when he highlighted crimes by illegal immigrants at his rallies, according to a person present for the exchange and another briefed on it later. Miller and Kushner laughed…
Around the same time, Nielsen was complaining to colleagues — and her then-boss, DHS secretary Kelly — about how the administration botched its travel ban. She panned the president’s statement about the border wall, saying it was unlikely to ever be built. Kelly agreed. The two sometimes joked about it.
In early 2017, Nielsen told at least two colleagues that the president’s rhetoric made it more difficult to run the agency.
Now, five months into her tenure as Homeland Security secretary, the measures Nielsen has implemented — separating families, boosting arrests, increasing prosecutions — have made her a villain to many Democrats and immigrant rights’ groups.
You’re goddamned right it has made her a villain — to anyone with a conscience. Nielsen is a fucking monster for implementing policies that result in incidents like this courtroom scene described in GQ:
Alma Jacinto covered her eyes with her hands as tears streamed down her cheeks. The 36-year-old from Guatemala was led out of the federal courtroom without an answer to the question that brought her to tears: When would she see her boys again?
Jacinto wore a yellow bracelet on her left wrist, which defense lawyers said identifies parents who are arrested with their children and prosecuted in Operation Streamline, a fast-track program for illegal border crossers.
Moments earlier, her public defender asked the magistrate judge when Jacinto would be reunited with her sons, ages 8 and 11. There was no clear answer for Jacinto, who was sentenced to time served on an illegal-entry charge after crossing the border with her sons near Lukeville on May 14.
A yellow bracelet? Why not just make it a fucking yellow star? Fuck any bullshit reporting that tries to portray Nielsen as Trump’s victim. She’s one of his enablers. So is every goddamned Republican who isn’t denouncing Trump on a daily basis and resisting his attempts to destroy everything this country is supposed to stand for.
Earlier this week, Trump called immigrants “animals,” and the wingnut media and credulous, useless, both-sides jack-holes in the mainstream media leapt to his defense when folks pointed out how goddamned racist and literally dehumanizing that dangerous rhetoric is. He also said this at the same round-table (via GQ link above):
“We have the worst immigration laws of any country, anywhere in the world,” Trump said at the roundtable held at the Morrelly Homeland Security Center. “They exploited the loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors.”
Trump added: “They look so innocent. They’re not innocent.”
This is straight-up Nazi shit, friends. And anyone who works for Trump or defends his policies is helping a dangerous demagogue take the U.S. further down the road to ethnic cleansing and open white nationalism. No sympathy. Ever.
Trump’s efforts to subvert the Department of Justice and federal law enforcement agencies to cover up his and his cronies’ corruption and collusion has taken center stage in the news lately. But like Hitler before him, Trump is banking on stoking hatred against scapegoats to consolidate his hold on power. Via Salon:
While President Donald Trump recently rejected the notion that the 2018 midterm elections are even more important to Republicans than the 2016 election, his senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, has basically admitted that the president is so worried about this fall’s elections that he plans to spend the entire campaign season vilifying immigrants.
“The big fight this summer is going to be with the open borders Democratic caucus in Congress,” Miller told Breitbart News in a piece published on Thursday. “That is the fundamental political contrast and political debate that is unfolding right now. The Democratic party is at grave risk of completely marginalizing itself from the American voters by continuing to lean into its absolutist anti-enforcement positions.”
“MS-13” is now code for “murderous hordes of rapacious brown people,” and Republicans nationwide have responded enthusiastically to the dog whistle, with Georgia gubernatorial candidates trying to out-racist one another with competing deportation vehicle ads and a Florida GOP hopeful bringing the ultimate violent racist, sexist wingnut fantasy to life by depicting a brown immigrant man murdering a white woman on a suburban street.
I wish I were optimistic that openly racist appeals won’t work in large swathes of the country, but I know they will. I am optimistic there are enough sufficiently engaged decent people to start turning the tide in November. But I’ll be honest: The possibility of a Reichstag Fire scenario worries me. There’s only so much mileage Trump and Fox News can get out of waving poor Kate Steinle’s bloody shirt.
We’ve got to win. And meanwhile, we’ve got to protect the vulnerable among us. And when this is over, there must be a reckoning — not just for Trump and his co-conspirators, but for the whole rotten bunch, including Nielsen.
JPL
The candidate that I’m voting for in the runoff in the GA6th district works with refugees and is a big proponent of immigration. It’s doubtful that he can reach the hearts and minds of the citizens of the 6th, but at least might as well try.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
OT and I know this isn’t an open thread but here is today’s school shooting: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2018/05/25/noblesville-school-shooting-active-shooter-reported-middle-school/644021002/
An unarmed science teacher tackled the boy who had the gun, and knocked the gun out of his hand. It appears the teacher was shot in the scuffle. At least no one died this time…
Apparently the science teacher’s name is Jason Seaman and he was shot multiple times:
“A woman who identified herself as Seaman’s mother posted on Facebook that her son was shot three times and was in surgery.”
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2018/05/25/indiana-school-shooting-noblesville-teacher-jason-seaman-stopped-shooter/644379002/
Christopher Locklear
Don’t be surprised Ms Nielsen…if you end up in The Hague. Minimally… I think recreational trips to Europe will be curtailed in the coming years
TenguPhule
It wasn’t even that hard of a choice.
bemused
Trump, WH and GOP are all soulless.
trollhattan
I’m looking for some/any indication that Republicans aren’t eating this shit up like a second scoop of ice cream. May I introduce you to John Cox, the leading California Republican governor candidate? The very first item you see is his Trump endorsement. Same thing is oozing onto my teevee set with his ads. How’s Steve King doing in the “heartland?”
They’ll keep doubling down until the dealer’s deck is empty.
TenguPhule
That sounds almost uncivil. //
Elizabelle
Great post, Betty.
JPL
OT I also know this isn’t an open thread, but sometimes sharing thoughts helps one clear their own mind of the thought. So forgive me but it occurred to me that Pence could call his wife mother during sex. That is just wrong.
James Powell
In other words, “Some Democrats claim it’s wrong to tear families apart” – Classic American Not-Liberal press/media.
Mary G
Remember that they lost 1,475 of the 7,000 children they took from their parents at the border. People have been shipped back to their countries, protesting that they don’t have their kids, and getting shrugs and “who knows” or “maybe in Texas, we’re not sure, get your ass on that plane” when they ask to have them back before they go. For that alone she should be beyond the pale, not “oh, poor thing, Twitler yelled at her.” She is a monster.
TenguPhule
Corrected for accuracy. The fascism is snowballing among the rightwingers.
Adam L Silverman
Thanks BettyC! Now I don’t have to do this post this afternoon.
JGabriel
WaPo:
I also used to think the “George W. Bush kind of Republican,” or, more specifically, the Dick Cheney kind, was the worst kind of Republican.
Then the Tea Partiers came along, and they were the worst.
Until the Trump kind of Republicans came along.
Damn, that was a quick devolution.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Slacker! //
Downpuppy
@Mary G: I think the lost children were from the unaccompanied minors. The deliberate separation policy is new – they haven’t had time to check and see if they’ve lost anyone yet.
Tenar Arha
Every time the punditocracy gives the benefit of the doubt to Agent Orange, a demon gets its wings.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: More likely he mumbles it through the ball gag.
trollhattan
Speaking of California Republicans, this is demented even by Rohrabacher standards. Stay classy, Dana
Can you imagine being the real estate agent for a seller who says, “Nope, I’m not selling to that dyke. Take the other offer.”?
TenguPhule
Via Digby.
JFC.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I’ll actually have a sort of follow on to it. Either later today or over the weekend.
Kylroy
“And when this is over, there must be a reckoning…”
There will be no reckoning on this, ever, that doesn’t involve at least thousands of dead Americans. The Civil War wiped out 2% of our total population and it *still* wasn’t enough for America to reckon with this shit for more than a decade.
Seanly
I hate what our country has become. We have to vote all these Republicans out of office at every level. They’re not even fit to run for dog catcher.
I’ve also about had it with NPR. Their latest schtick is infuriating when they are interviewing some ex-government official. As the person describes why Trump’s crazy or unhinged rants or actions endanger life on earth, the ever-so-measured host will ask some assinine follow-up question beginning with “But his supporters love that”. I don’t know if the NPR host is supposed to be an obtuse idiot or is hoping the person will explode & shout that Trump is a danger to us all or that his supporters are, you know, morons & their opinions are stupid.
germy
This I’d like to see.
Tenar Arha
@JPL: Ugh, whyyy?!! I mean why’d you share that?
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: Excellent point. Here’s a link to that story.
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: @Adam L Silverman: Damn you both! I wish you fleas.
trollhattan
@Kylroy:
As much as I’d like to I can’t argue. They’re stripping the joint bare at the same time they’re beating up on everyone they don’t like. The chandeliers are already gone and now they’re yanking copper wire from the walls.
different-church-lady
@JGabriel: The fish always gets as big as the tank.
germy
As we predicted, they’re going after Avenatti
VeniceRiley
I am beside myself.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
My best friend was Harvey Weinstein’s first assistant. She emailed me a bit ago, wondering if Harvey saw the irony of his being in handcuffs. I don’t think he did, but I hope someone in the crowd shouted something at him about this.
schrodingers_cat
Immigrant bashing is a win-win for the Rs, they can get their hate on, most of the people directly and personally affected by these policies cannot vote. The President is wrong, the legal immigration system in this country is not easy to navigate.
NotMax
Letting the inmates completely run the asylum never a good idea.
trollhattan
@germy:
I hope he has Kevlar underwear.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Sorry!
trollhattan
@debbie:
I’d be torn–would you put Harvey Weinstein’s assistant on your CV in 2018?
One can only imagine the stories.
schrodingers_cat
Test
ETA: Whether I can edit my own comments.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Good. If it was me, the punishment would be him locked in a cage with the women he’s assaulted, attacked, and raped. But I’m funny that way.
Schlemazel
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
I have taken to posting on FB every time this happens & stealing from the late, great, bartcop, headlining with “NRA opens new offices in “[city, state where it happened]”
I have started adding the regular onion.com link to https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1826142891
germy
@trollhattan:
Mary G
@trollhattan: The realtors association here has condemned him roundly and withdrawn their endorsement. Gay money is still money.
This is unprecedented here in Orange County.
debbie
@trollhattan:
She was there at the very beginning of the company when Harvey had zero power. He was a bully even then, but I know she’d have punched him if he had tried anything.
@Adam L Silverman:
I would so love that! Knowing Harvey, he’d cry like a little girl!
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: And the fairly large number of gay Republican men in his district (oh yes, they do exist, in numbers far larger than you’d ever imagine) will throw him a few million more bucks. They already got their money and tax breaks and are all too happy to pull up the ladder after them.
Millard Filmore
@Christopher Locklear:
I have not noticed that anyone from the crew of Bush The Lesser have traveled outside this country.
catclub
@JPL:
next you’ll be telling me that Norman Bates had some issues.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: I’m also a big believer that murderers should get life in prison without parole and their major punishment should be that the walls of their cells have embedded digital picture frames that show pictures of their victims 24/7 so they can’t escape them.
Kylroy
@trollhattan:
I don’t care if Donald Trump personally gets punished, I’d be happy if we merely got to a point where he was universally reviled and understood to be a political mistake we should avoid repeating.
But those kinds of reckonings never happen outside of nations that have faced the possibility of complete and utter destruction. We talk about wishing the US could do something like Nuremburg or the South African Truth & Reconciliation commission, but we elide the necessity of the nation to be rendered utterly powerless first.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Letting the inmates vote which one of them would be in charge of running the asylum promises to end very badly for all of us.
danielx
@TenguPhule:
Some might even say shrill.
Amir Khalid
I’ve watched the mainstreaming of racism and fascism in America with dismay. It is not the America or the Americans I have known. But I am optimistic that the bums can be voted out. It took us a decade but Malaysians made it happen. Americans can do it too.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Must be the Kipling inside of you.
Cacti
America has reached its last days of the Weimar Republic moment, complete with the ascendancy of a fascist movement who flout any laws, rules, or norms of decency to secure their advantage, and a feckless political left who would rather fight their allies than their adversaries.
Is there a chance to turn back the tide? Maybe, if the 2018 election remains legal, fair, and above the board. But the window is closing quickly.
OTOH, I think if there’s a black swan/Reichstag fire type event, the American experiment in democracy will go tits up under the table.
TenguPhule
@Millard Filmore:
We should deport them.
JPL
@catclub: lol There’s a reason that I’ve installed clear glass shower doors in my home.
raven
@Kylroy: I don’t know about anyone else her but I don’t elide nuthin!
TenguPhule
@Cacti:
I am comforted by the fact that as a country we don’t do cooperation very well for very long.
raven
@JPL: Do you squeegee them ever time?
JPL
@Kylroy: There will always be people who defend him. As far as I’m concerned they can defend him from behind bars just as easily.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Uh, hate to break this to you Adam, but that’s not a punishment for some of them. Its a reward.
danielx
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
Happened a few miles north of where I live….teacher and thirteen year old girl shot, shooter a seventh grader. Going way out on a limb, kid probably had access to an unsecured weapon.
TenguPhule
@Kylroy:
There’s a first time for everything.
Kylroy
@Amir Khalid: Knowing that other countries have managed to turn away from fascism without burning themselves to the ground is one of the few things I can take comfort in lately.
JPL
@raven: yup It works fine and I use glass cleaner once a week.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Fine, those who think it’s a reward get the Meow Mix jingle piped into their cells 24/7. Happy now?
Kylroy
@TenguPhule: Yeah, but A) my faith in American Exceptionalism is pretty much gone, and B) there’s a lot of other times for everything else.
raven
@JPL: We have a glass wall with no door and I found an 18″ squeegee fro it.
raven
@Kylroy: So what time are you slitting your wrists?
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
It can’t be news to you that Mike Pence is a Mother … you know.
Kylroy
@raven: Never, I’m just praying the inevitable 2nd American Civil War starts after i’m dead.
smintheus
Seems like straight-up kidnapping. Everyone who took part should be prosecuted and sent to jail for life. What’s their defense going to be, “At least we didn’t push the kids’ parents out of planes over the ocean”?
eclare
@raven: Srsly. Hey, isn’t your bride retiring today?
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: why would you subject his victims to more abuse?
Betty Cracker
@Adam L Silverman: That might be an 8th Amendment violation. Augmenting the jingle with the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas album would DEFINITELY violate the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
I got a couple of emails from coxsucker. Absolutely a fucking disgusting, asshole.
I replied and didn’t hold back at all.
At least the emails have stopped.
And I can see why he’d be a drumpf supporter and clone. He has about the same skill set as drumpf. Without the charm.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m listening to it right now. Doesn’t being forced to listen to it 24/7 constitute especially cruel and unusual punishment.
raven
@eclare: Yup, she just got home. She said she teared up a bit but now we go to a “cocktail” party in her honor so she should recover quickly.
TenguPhule
@smintheus:
Given the secrecy involved, this might not even be a valid defense.
raven
@Kylroy: Well you just pray away and let me know if it matters.
TenguPhule
@sukabi:
Not familiar with the rape and revenge genre?
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Adam L Silverman: I fear that many of them would just get off on the pictures of their crimes. As to caging someone with their victim, it might be a good fantasy, but I would see it more damaging to the victim in real life.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I prefer them as involuntary manual labor. But different strokes.
GregMulka
@James Powell:
“Some Democrats claim it’s wrong to tear families apart and lose 1500 children in the process.” FTFY
TenguPhule
Civilians kill gunman after 3 shot at Oklahoma restaurant
NRA is already partying like its 1999.
The Moar You Know
@Cacti: I agree wholly. Trying to convince my spouse that we need to sell everything and GTFO, buy EU citizenship. She doesn’t want to, thinks it’ll work out. I obviously don’t. So we may learn this lesson the hard way.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Especially the completely insane inmates. The ones with over 50% of the DSM illnesses.
Redshift
While looking up something else, I happened to turn up headlines from the Washington Times and various wingnut anti-immigrant organizations trumpeting “poll shows 80% of Americans want to close the border!”
The actual question was “Do you think we should have basically open borders or do you think we need secure borders?”
Assholes.
sukabi
@TenguPhule: death by masturbation? Something similar happening to a marsupial…
Grrrrr…nym & email fields still fubar ?
Aleta
@Adam L Silverman: That would attract a fleet of hopeful cats. Though if their antics and purrs happened to heal a few traumatic brain lesions…scientific breakthrough! You’d get a National Geographic speaking tour!
A Ghost To Most
What are you prepared to do about it?
Kylroy
@The Moar You Know: I’d at least wait until the 2018 election. If Trump is shocking enough to the electorate that they reverse course, it’ll buy the country a decade, maybe more. Otherwise, yeah, pack your bags.
Ruckus
@debbie:
Crying like a little girl is not anywhere close to enough.
Aleta
@Amir Khalid: … of Invention?
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
A strange calculation. They may want to pull up the ladder, but they will be pushed off the wall by a return of anti-gay bigotry. Or they will have to run back into the closet.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: I recommend “It’s A Small World After All.” You can’t get through a two minute ride at Disneyland without wanting to scream.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Brachiator: But the tax cuts mean that they can buy fabulous closets!
debbie
@Ruckus:
Didn’t say it was. But he’s one person where public humiliation would be devastating.
sukabi
@TenguPhule: yes, but I’m pretty sure that no woman that’s been sexually assaulted is going to want to personally be that intimate with her attacker again…she may want to hire someone to do it for her though…
HeleninEire
Yeah. I voted.
REPEAL THE 8TH. Woot!!!
Matt
The future tense is inappropriate here – this has *been* the US for decades. It’s varied in intensity over the years, but the War On (some classes of people who use some) Drugs has been a cover story for de-facto apartheid for a long time. Plenty of places don’t have much distinction between who’s in the local white-supremacist terror cell and who works for the police department.
When the Trumpkins shriek “I WANT MAH COUNTRY BACK”, it’s pushing back against some of the very mild attempts we’ve made to undo some of that shit.
raven
@Mary G: Try this
Laurel Canyon Animal Company
Especially Squeaky Deaky!
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: I agree, but I don’t possess the required brain damage to think like a Republican. I live in Orange County South (San Diego County) and I’ve been seeing this over and over again. Hardcore Nazibot GOPer starts throwing around the gay-bashing rhetoric, gay men line up to give him money. It is passing strange. Really don’t get it.
opiejeanne
@trollhattan: I hate these people.
O. T. Speaking of eating this shit up, my cat has discovered some rabbit poo and is eating it. Gah!
Kylroy
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): Don’t diminish that. Plenty of them would be happy to be latter-day Roy Cohns.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Mary G:
You would have to place them inside a sound proof room, or the guards might go postal,
germy
Phony populism. Andrew’s a good example.
Ruckus
@debbie:
I know. It’s just that in the overall scope of things, this would never have made my list.
Now if you’d said he’d criy like someone had his balls in a vise, that would have made the cut.
smintheus
@TenguPhule: I will not be surprised if some of the kidnapped children end up being forcibly adopted by members of the “family values” crowd.
Aleta
@Aleta: Campaign theme song plays, as the Pence Trio* walk on stage as : Frank Zappa, How’s Your Bird?
* Mother, Pence and the Holy of Holies
debbie
@Ruckus:
Personally, physical stuff makes me queasy. But there’s a part of Harvey that did made him do what he did, not just because he could or because he wanted to get laid, but because he enjoyed watching the humiliation.
But…so long as he’s locked up forever!
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
Is it possible that they feel ashamed that they are gay? They want to be straight and do things that they think might just “prove” that they are. It doesn’t of course and running away from reality usually makes things worse but humans do that every day even when they know.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
That or the Noriga soundtrack, whatever that was.
Buddy back in the day managed a Tower Records (“open ’til midnight, every day of the year”) and if the store had a thin crowd after 11:00 he’d start playing customer repellant to clear the joint so he could close. Two of the best were a composition by a French avant garde composer that was all squeaky barn doors and the “Oklahoma” soundtrack as sung by Ethel Merman. Believe you me, they could really work.
WV Blondie
I can’t say this is cause and effect, but … I live in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia – the “thumb” that sits between Maryland and Virginia, not far from D.C. My county has numerous federal facilities (thanks, late Sen. Byrd) – including training facilities for ICE, CBP, ATF that have been built within the last decade.
Also over the last decade, our local politics has gone nuts, with capital-C crazy Rethuglicans. In our recently-held primaries, for instance, an incumbent (still sane) Republican was challenged from the right. The attacks on her, by her own party, were utterly vicious! For instance, she made a campaign appeal for Dems to change their registration to unaffiliated (our version of independent) so they and other unaffiliated voters could pick her in the primary. Makes sense as a strategy, right? Instead, the county GOP filed a complaint against her with the WV State Election Commission (which basically laughed out loud at their idiocy). She held on to win her primary by 40 votes.
Anyhow, I’m wondering if the assholes, bigots and racists that came for the federal employment are now infecting the local general populace. It didn’t used to be this way here.
raven
What the fuck is with all the “Privacy Policy” updates! I must have gotten 50 today!
Humdog
@Mary G: Remember when the Small World ride broke down stranding guests in the dark, on the boats, with the music going forever? Nightmare!
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Great post. I would just add one thing
Trump has to be stopped because everyone is vulnerable if this shit is allowed to continue.
Kylroy
@Ruckus: I’m sure some of them do, but for most of them it’s just voting/donating based on their pocketbook. They trust their wealth and privilege will protect them from any anti-homosexual blowback.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
Oklahoma has a lake?
debbie
@raven:
Privacy issues. I think they just email everyone.
trollhattan
@raven:
New European regs are going into effect and it’s easier to include us not-so-private Americans under them. I’m getting a blizzard as well.
Thanks, Europe!
Humdog
@raven: I understand Europe has handed down a law requiring companies to tighten their privacy rules or be sued. Many companies are doing so and others are prohibiting Europeans from accessing sites that don’t want to chanLike the Los Angeles Times.
different-church-lady
@trollhattan: Nuggets, a little record store, Kenmore Square (Boston), 1980s: the owner would shout across the store to the guys at the desk, “There’s too many people in here! Put on that Ornette Coleman album!” Three minutes of free jazz later: “They’re not leaving! Turn it up really loud!”
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Maybe some of the ones who look “white.”
Aleta
@Adam L Silverman: Safe bet that none of them agree with you.
I'll be Frank
@TenguPhule: Thus proving the paradox of strategy; your strengths are your weaknesses.
trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
Heh, nice choice “Squonnnnnk!” Sun Ra would make a fine option.
J R in WV
Betty, I have one small correction to your otherwise good article.
This Norwegian bitch Kirstjen Nielsen was not made a villain by the things she has done as DHS head. She was born or raised up to be a villain, which enables her to do the things she has done as DHS head.
I think one’s evil isn’t defined by what you do, but what you are capable of doing, or willing to do when asked. Kirstjen Nielsen is obviously capable of doing whatever she is called upon to do by dear leader. No matter how evil.
Ruckus
@debbie:
Yeah, I agree.
Just having a bit of a bad day. This too shall pass. Eventually.
Did have a thought, how are juries going to be impaneled for a lot of these trials that hopefully we see? And how many people could be a reasonable juror? If you are a conservative, it seems that anything is OK as long as it’s one of them and if a liberal…… could anyone here make an honest juror?
Mary G
@raven: You are an evil man. My congrats to your princess on her retirement.
@HeleninEire
: ????
@Adam L Silverman: No luck finding a picture of ICE’s wristband, but here is a picture of the Pope wearing Italy’s. What is the significance of the color yellow to these fascists? Cowardice?
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I’m at a loss here.
germy
@Mary G:
Pee tape.
HeleninEire
@raven: As of today GDPR has kicked in. Mega harsh European privacy laws. And if an American company does business in Europe they are subject to the laws. But only if you (Raven) actually do business – with that “European” company. Google and many others are based in Ireland because of low taxes on companies.
That their taxes are stupidely low is another conversation.
trollhattan
Cue up the “Why doesn’t she just shut up like the loser is supposed to?” cries.
Thanks Hill, I still like you anyway.
The Moar You Know
@Kylroy: I think that’s it. And the “bad old days” is actually a system they’re good at navigating, so they are probably right.
different-church-lady
@raven: Speaking of…
HeleninEire
@Mary G: Cheers Mary. Gonna stay up all night to see the exit polls. But the real counting does not start till tomorrow. We will know probably tomorrow afternoon unless it is super close.
Ruckus
@Kylroy:
Yeah.
These are the “good” homosexuals. They wear suits and ties, go to nice cocktail parties, would never be seen in a gay bar. At least not around where they live and work. And you are right, they never think that they would be included in the roundup. Search for gay bars in Orange County, CA. There’s no shortage. Just like the middle class republicans who thought that they would be well served by the republican tax cuts. They are the good guys who are just insuring that they will be respected, by financially supporting republican values. IOW fucking morons.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: Oh, Hillary. You’re still trying to play fair. Let’s get real and add some other offenders to that list:
CNN
NYT
NPR
most of MSNBC
anything on AM radio
pile on, Juicers. There’s more. I know Hillary and I haven’t even scratched the surface.
Jager
@Ruckus: but trump said Cox will Make California Great Again, I saw it on my tee vee
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know: We’re still stuck at about a decade ago. The Harvard study cited Breitbart as the true center of deplorable disinformation.
trollhattan
My day just became immeasurably better.
Say it ain’t so, Al.
Ruckus
@Jager:
And he will. He just has a very, very distorted idea of great. A totally reverse concept of great. And of whom it’s great for. It ain’t the majority. It ain’t any minorities. It is of course only his friends and paymasters. His idea of greatness would be to make the CA economy something more in line with Alabama or Mississippi. It doesn’t have to be big, the only requirement is that his paymasters get all of it. Kind of like the plantation owners did 175 yrs ago.
Mary G
@The Moar You Know: Judy Woodruff and the Snooze Hour.
J R in WV
@The Moar You Know:
Can you just buy EU citizenship? Who do you go to for professional guidance on immigrating to the EU? How much would medical care cost? Do you speak a language appropriate to a nation in the EU?
Ladyraxterinok
@trollhattan: in case this not a snark comment: OK has a large number of lakes, many of them man-made.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: And Facebook is the vector of infection. My friend went from a D leaning independent to a full on cray cray conspiracy theorist, and the source of most her info was Facebook.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: But… but it’s just a platform! A poor little innocent platform! LEAVE FACEBOOK ALOOOOOOONE!
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Awww, what a fucking shame.
Al, even with all your credentials (did you steal them?), you are a fucking moron.
There was a chipmunk named Al and he was smarter than AD.
BTW I’m giggling. Just a bit. I’ll get over it. Eventually.
J R in WV
@Mary G:
“It’s A Small World After All.” Yeah!! Who thought anyone would enjoy that? I was shocked, amazed and hostile by the time that ended. Had no idea what we were getting in to when we got in line for that, back in about 1972.
Also no impressed by the crummy robot presidents. Terrible. Sad!
sukabi
@trollhattan: gee who knew there were consequences for defending the indefensible, engaging in character assassination, and lying?
Ladyraxterinok
@germy: o Didn’t Nazis make Jews wear a yellow Star of David?
The Moar You Know
@different-church-lady: Was leaving out online, as was Hillary. We shouldn’t. You are right. And yeah, I’ve actually got Breitbart in my bookmarks as a news source I should read, but I just find it so staggeringly depressing I often don’t. They are insane but the howler monkeys that comprise their audience are much worse. And there’s millions of them.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
There are a number of countries that sell citizenships. They are not cheap. But really most countries that sell you a citizenship have no problem with English. They mostly do have a problem with the Ugly American though. Of course we also have issues with the Ugly American. It’s just here we call them republicans.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Good! Earlier this week, I was cheered to learn that larval Ann Coulter from Fox News (Tami Whozits) can’t go out to brunch in Minnesota without being jeered out of the establishment, though I do wish the person who threw water on her hadn’t given her a reason to take a pity party tour on every Fox program. (Use your WORDS, people!) There should be a social price for propping up a corrupt, fascist shitbag.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@trollhattan: That’s exactly what should happen. No decent person should willingly associate with any of these criminals again.
trollhattan
@Ladyraxterinok:
90% snark, but 10% not actually knowing.
True (the best kind!) story: The inlaws did the retired in-law thing and hauled a 5th wheel trailer in an orbit around our fine nation before visiting other inlaws in the Arkansas Ozarks. Whatever madness befalls people with spare time and money found them buying a large hunk of lakefront property on Bull Shoals Lake. “We’ll build here then everybody will come out here to live with us!”
Okay.
But fall suddenly became winter and the trailer was frozen in a field, leading to an unplanned winter living with my spouse’s aunt and her brood. After they finally hauled out of there they never returned and we eventually had to dispose of all that fine property after my FIL passed. Lake Havasu substituted for Bull Shoals; they even tried to make it through one summer there.
But it was a “fine piece of land.”
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: She was very proud of the fact that she got most of her news from FB.
The Moar You Know
@J R in WV: Sure you can, and I’d have to as I’m over 50 (the age cutoff for any Crown colony nation). Ireland’s the best deal going right now at about 130,000 Euro per person. Medical care is nationalized (that’s why I’m looking at Crown nations only, that and the language issue). You don’t need professional guidance although it would probably help a lot.
And once in an EU nation, you’re an EU citizen, can go and work and live pretty much anywhere in Europe.
Had I done this five years ago I could have just migrated as both my wife and I are in the precious “high demand skills” category.
ETA: you can buy citizenship in most nations, including the US. Canada is running around $500k these days by way of example. The US, last I looked (and that was a while ago) is about the same amount.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
If only. Flushing the shit out of the system is a good thing.
HeleninEire
@The Moar You Know: No
The Moar You Know
@schrodingers_cat: God, I can’t think of a worse life choice than that. I had to seriously re-evaluate the sanity of most of my IRL friends when I saw the shit they post on Facebook. No wonder your friend became a lunatic.
TenguPhule
Skynet is here and trying to kill us.
schrodingers_cat
@The Moar You Know: Ah the investor visa. Kushie has been selling that boondoggle via his real estate companies.
HeleninEire
@The Moar You Know: Also too, you have no clue about Ireland. But keep talking stupid. And then I will correct you. As HeleninEire
The Moar You Know
@schrodingers_cat: Right, that one. And no need to buy it from Jared, you just just go straight to the government of your choice and do it.
debbie
@Ruckus:
I was asking this very thing this morning in regard to Roger Stone’s eventual trial. I was a party of one in regard to possible dishonesty of jurors. I remain convinced conservative citizens will say they can be fair when they have zero intentions of doing so.
The Moar You Know
@HeleninEire: It’s what I do.
Your government does sell investor visas, however.
As do most.
And frankly, I make a great neighbor.
Calouste
@J R in WV: There are a number of EU countries (Portugal, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, maybe others) that have a “Golden Visa” program, which allows residency with citizenship after a number of years.
I’m vaguely familiar with the Portuguese program, which requires an investment of € 500,000 in real estate (less if the real estate is in disadvantaged areas), and then € 20,000 or so in fees over the years.
schrodingers_cat
@The Moar You Know: His real estate companies have been in involved in multiple scandals over the EB-5 investor GC IIRC.
Yutsano
@The Moar You Know: Canada is province specific for investment price for citizenship. British Columbia is only $250,000. My dad’s looking at it for retirement.
WV Blondie
@raven: GDPR – the EU’s new General Data Privacy Regulation – goes into effect today. A lot of companies have figured out that if they have to be in compliance for European site visitors, it’s easier to just have a policy that applies to all visitors, regardless of where they’re located.
patrick II
@Adam L Silverman:
That is similar to (although not quite as depraved) my wish for George Bush’s hell. The devil would turn his empathy switch from off to on and he would have to watch the innumerable victims of his Iraq war die horribly. He would also be given a handgun so he could commit suicide but never die so he would have to wake back up and watch over and over.
I didn’t like George much.
CAinCA
Does anyone here have any recommendations for Canadian political blogs or podcasts? I’d like to start paying attention again, just in case we end up moving back…
(Currently on vacation in Canada and wondering if we’ll be let back into the states…joking, kinda…)
HeleninEire
@The Moar You Know: LOL sell me a VISA. For real people. A person. I already said Google and Facebook got on here for NOTHING except low taxes. Investors Visas. Oh no.
Tenar Arha
@trollhattan: There’s a deep shame in watching members of “my tribe” bamboozle themselves into aiding & abetting the white supremacy of this administration while ignoring the creeping anti-semitism they’re enabling. It will likely end by hurting us all, including them, though they seem not to understand that.
ETA It’s really not hard to hear what’s happening to Dershowitz & feel all the schadenfreude.
Ruckus
@HeleninEire:
It’s been a few years since I looked into moving abroad but there really are/were a number of countries that sell citizenships. Some of them are direct payments and some are purchasing of property or owning a business/investments. Most of them require a lot more money than I have, which means that I would have had to do it the old fashioned way, be under a certain age, get a temp visa and have a solid job for a year and then it’s possible. Except that I was at the cutoff age. Damn, missed again. We used to have a number of people work for us who were here on work visas and it’s a complicated system. I fully believe it’s gotten worse over the decades, more rules, restrictions, etc. There are some countries that will allow you to emigrate if you have a guaranteed minimum income, like SS. But I’ve met people from one of the places that I thought might be nice and they tell me the cost of living is a lot different than what the government there lists. Just like here you can live cheaply or nicely, but not both at the same time. That said I have a friend who lives in Panama and loves it. And he is far, far from wealthy.
Patricia Kayden
@trollhattan: That probably happens all the time since many states don’t protect LGBTs in terms of jobs, housing, etc.
Millard Filmore
@raven:
Possibly related to a new set of privacy laws that went into effect today in the E.U.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
I can’t imagine being that agent, but I can imagine a lot of people who would be fine with it. And those people live in CA.
Yutsano
@Millard Filmore: That would explain why I got that when I had to sign off Twitter on my phone this morning.
Feathers
@raven: @trollhattan: The new regs cover EU citizens wherever they access the internet, with heavy fines per violation, so the real world effect is that all companies everywhere must follow the new rules.
Bill Arnold
@Ladyraxterinok:
Re Oklahoma,
Jellyfish Sprites over Oklahoma
big image
J R in WV
@HeleninEire:
OK, I’m not Irish, at all.
But if things look downhill, Ireland might very suddenly look very good. How much? Or alternatively, how? Retired…
B.B.A.
Why are we talking about emigrating at a time like this? In the words of that great philosopher Gabby Johnson, ain’t no way that nobody is gonna leave this country! Hell, I was born here, and I was raised here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, and no sidewindin’ bushwackin’ hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!
different-church-lady
@TenguPhule: SKYNET: “I’m here to exterminate humanity.”
HUMANITY: “If there’s an app for it, SIGN ME UP!”
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know:
Ah, so there is an up-side to Facebook!
Yutsano
@B.B.A.: I only leave if the Hawai’i monarchy gets restored and there’s birthright citizenship. Cause I’m off to the islands peeps. But I’ll stay a dual citizen.
daverave
@The Moar You Know:
A quick google search makes me quite skeptical of your claim that citizenship can be bought at anything like 150k euros. This article from 2017 is where i started.
I was only enquiring for a friend however.
Anya
@germy: he needs to stop whining and just defeat the fuckers. This whining is not going to win him any sympathy. He’s good at attacking and taking no prisoners when he does so what’s the point of this? I say this and I am team Avenatti and team Stormy. That chick does not complain. Her twitter interactions with trolls and MAGA morons is a thing of beauty. Avenatti on the other had, needs to stay away from twitter. He’s better on tv.
HeleninEire
@J R in WV: Wanna marry me? Got a friend here who cannot figure out the system.
Tokyokie
@J R in WV: As a former resident of Norway, I’m afraid I have to take minor exception. Scandinavian names ending in “-sen” are usually Danish, whereas those ending in “-son” are usually Norwegian or Swedish. But then, Denmark is the European country the Nazis occupied that lost the lowest percentage of its pre-war Jewish population, smuggling most of them to Sweden. On the other hand, Norway, birthplace of Vidkund Quisling, happily turned over most of its Jews, not that it had very many in the first place.
dww44
@JPL: I’m still catching up. What 2 Dems are in the runoff in the 6th? and which of the two are you supporting?
Ruckus
@daverave:
Every country is different and change happens often. I know someone who lives in the Philippines and it cost him about $120K to emigrate. He says it was well worth it. Haven’t heard from him since the current president, Duterte, took over. Last I checked if I invest something like 2 million I can emigrate to NZ. Buying your way in is not the only way, but for someone with the means it is probably the easiest. However if you have the means, many places are very nice to live in, even if you have to take a month or three vacation every year.
oaguabonita
@WV Blondie:
Kinda like CA auto-emission standards that way.
J R in WV
@Tokyokie:
OK, I plead guilty and confess. Also apologize, not Scandinavian familiar at all.
PaulWartenberg
#WHEREARETHECHILDREN
1500 or more immigrant children just dropped off the face of the Earth after ICE separated them from their families.
The worst case scenario is that the kids were handed over to human traffickers/slavers. There is no best case scenario: the agencies tasked with keeping up with the kids simply cannot find the people they left those kids with. It’s like nobody did sufficient background checks or bonded the caretakers or anything. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN?
Captain C
@Adam L Silverman: Which switches at random times to minimalist noise music and eventually back again.
Ol'Froth
I was at work the other day (I’m a police officer) and as I was turning around in the parking lot of the YMCA, an older woman flagged me down. Went to see what she wanted, and she thanked my for what I do (nice). Then she went on about how hard it must be for me with MS-13. I explained to her that MS-13 doesn’t have a presence in our city (although they are quite violent where they exist). She looked at me like I have two heads. Then she went on about how many police officers are being killed, and I said yes, that’s tragic, but thankfully, law enforcement line of duty deaths have been trending down for years. She then went on what I assumed was some Fox-inspired rant about violent crime, and by this point, I knew that pointing out that violent crime rates are falling and have been for a number of years would be wasted, so I just politely told her I needed to resume my rounds, and drove away.
Dice
@Seanly: NPR is federal government. All I need to know about their motivation, despite a progressiv-ish history.
Robert Paehlke
Thank you for this post it says what needs to be said. The United States government is committing crimes against humanity every single day. We need to say so. The nation is run by racist monsters.