Turns out that despite all the screeching about Trump’s child gulag directive being the regrettably unavoidable result of a “Democrat law,” Trump now figures he can obliterate it with an executive action — which is exactly how it started:
BREAKING NEWS: White House considering executive action to prevent family separations at borderhttps://t.co/uM73eKnsLy
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 20, 2018
Who knows. It’s state TV, but they could be wrong. The baby jail issue is a disaster for Republicans, but Trump doesn’t give a shit about them. There must be a face-saving proviso — something that the lumpy bag of tinted epidermis-encased fat and trapped farts can claim as a “win.” Just trying to imagine what that might look like (the “win,” not the “lumpy bag,” etc., which is all too in evidence).
elm
It’s good that pressure is getting to them. Perhaps they will consider doing something that is better instead of worse.
Edited to add: I gave Fox the click so you don’t have to. Here’s the essence:
The action under consideration would allow children to stay in detention with parents for an extended period of time.
They’re just planning to rearrange the cages.
lamh36
LAO
Frankensteinbeck
Trump is an utter coward whose presidential career has seen him back down over and over and over and over. Remember all those threats over the budget? No? Because he did nothing when he didn’t get anything he wanted? Or his tough language on Korea? He saw torturing immigrants as easy and fun. Now it’s blowing up in his face. This is one of the very few issues he truly, deeply cares about, so I’m not sure how it will swing. Forget saving face and claiming a win. Like most narcissists, Trump figures that out after failing.
eric
Unpossible….i heard from the President that you need the law changed by Congress.
Why would they undercut that message when Ryan just said they would vote? evil and stupid. floor wax and dessert topping.
Platonailedit
@LAO: Ever the king’s sycophant courtier.
Betty Cracker
@LAO: In a previous life, Haberman composed songs of chivalrous deeds for a particularly shitty Medieval court.
randy khan
@LAO:
Ms. H has plenty of faults, but this seems like a fair reading.
My expectation is that the draft order will not actually be very good (and there really is no guarantee that Trump would sign off on it), but I love that the pressure has gotten strong enough that at least some people feel they need to do something.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
I don’t know how likely he is to do anything that he might see as “losing”. It’s going to take a whole lot of leaning on him before he’ll go along with it. And he hates to be told what to do. If somebody tells him to do something, he’ll often do the opposite out of spite. God help us all.
chopper
whatever it its, it’s likely to make things even worse.
Kay
It must be excruciating for all the Trump people who enthusiastically backed it -let’s make a list.
Trump, Kelly, Sessions, Conway, Sanders. These are the people who will back anything, no matter how cruel for personal or political gain.
It’s good to know, going forward. Nothing is off the table for these folks. Trump tells them to round up children and put them in camps, they hop right to it. They’ll try to squirm out of it, so we’ll have to remind them.
schrodingers_cat
@LAO: Gossip columnist for Twitler’s inner circle says what?
smintheus
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): He’ll tell his base that he’s throwing them all in concentration camps, and that Mexico will pay for them.
D58826
OMG FLOTUS has a voice. She actually gave a short press statement but not about what is going on at the border.
NickM
Much as I love seeing Trump with one of his floppy tits in a wringer, the kids and parents are the only ones who count here. I hope this story is correct.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: You forget the Nazi in pearls, Nielsen. She did that horrible briefing that Sanders refused to do.
Kay
General Kelly not only takes an order to round up children, he helps drafts one! An enthusiastic backer.
He’ll do anything and the rest of the weaklings will follow.
JPL
Fox News will hail his victory of getting rid of the terrible policy put into place by Obama.
schrodingers_cat
I don’t trust these people. I will trust this so called executive order MAGA Habs is talking about when it is analyzed by an immigration lawyer who specializes in asylum and refugee cases and has their interests at heart.
Steeplejack
Trump’s “win” will be that he is boldly cutting the Gordian knot of horrible legislation crafted by the evil Democrats.
Frankensteinbeck
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.):
Trump does things he sees as ‘losing’ all the time. He just lies about whether he lost afterwards. He is weak. He is profoundly, shockingly weak.
Steeplejack
Who knew Infrastructure Week would be detention camps in Texas? My broker still has me long on North Korean beachfront condos. Damn it!
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: It was his fucking idea to snatch the children as a “deterrent”. CNN has that interview, he has said so on camera.
Humdog
@LAO: I read this Haberman tweet, since she knows Shitstain reads her, as her attempt to sabotage a roll back of this disgusting policy. We all know how he hates to feel managed and that he chafes under Kelly’s direction, so pointing it out to him could make him stick with the policy.
MattF
I do wonder how Trump will manage to blame Hillary/Democrats/Obama/MS-13 for his backing down.
ETA: How about flatly denying both that he’s responsible and that he ever did it? That would work.
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: So what? That’s what they do. Lie about everything.
hitless
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): It won’t be a loss – “I took executive action to stop the horror caused by Obama’s law. It should have been done long ago but the Democrats failed to lead.”
And it will be reported as such and believed.
MomSense
Fox is probably signaling to him that he should end it.
Here is the latest email I sent to Collins.
I received your response to my previous email regarding the separation of children and infants from their parents.
I agree that the fastest and easiest way to stop this humanitarian crisis is with the change in policy by AG Sessions and president trump. I appreciate that you joined 12 other Republican Senators to say that. It won’t work with AG Sessions or President Trump unless there are consequences for their inaction.
In his speech yesterday at a small business event he told multiple lies about his policy, Mexico, the legal process, etc.
They will not do anything to stop this unless you threaten to co-sponsor S 3036 and/or caucus with the Democrats.
In our name our government is committing crimes against humanity. History will condemn the failure of the Republican members of the House and Senate to stop this. You and your Republican colleagues will be responsible for whatever happens to these innocent children.
The world is watching. Do the right thing.
I’ve had trouble getting through by fax and phone so this was done using resistbot. Text resist to 504-09 and they take care of the rest. I usually keep my message to one topic or aspect of one topic. Will call later about where are the girls.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I wonder what makes a person like that quit? What would be enough? I mean, you can hardly tell yourself you’re holding some line of decency when you’re out there defending the child detention camps. These are fancy and powerful people with great job prospects and plenty of money, the most expensive educations money can buy, yet they ALL fail in the crunch.
They’re not even risking anything! She’d be re-employed in some conservative grift shop in 24 hours. ALL she had to do was quit but that was too hard for her.
The 6 year old coming over the border is MUCH tougher than these coddled, pampered weaklings. I’d trade one of those kids for the whole pack of Trump hires and the country would be stronger for it.
rikyrah
@LAO:
I’m so tired of this trifling bytch and her ‘inside politics’ knowledge that she thinks we’re supposed to give a shyt about.
lamh36
Platonailedit
@JPL: Can we just stop with these self fulfilling prophecies how the wingnut media and the wingnut voters will react/spin/’think’ on any issue? We all know that and repeating them is only a negative feedback for those who are trying to do something.
stinger
OMG, Betty, I wouldn’t have thought anything associated wit this topic could make me laugh, but your post and especially the description of T-Bagg are hilarious!
ETA: With apologies to Mr. Boggioni.
Elizabelle
@Platonailedit: Thank you. I am tired of that shit too. It’s not funny or amusing or ironic, much as some of it might have started out that way.
Don’t let them live in your heads. You have better brains and hearts.
No Drought No More
The only thing that concerns Trump yesterday, today, and tomorrow, is keeping his own sorry ass out of prison. If this report is accurate, my guess is that yesterday, as he rambled on to his trapped audience with congressional republicans, he saw something in their eyes that scared the hell out him.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes. The General. That pillar of strength and honor. He went after 6 year olds. Give me a fucking break. He should slink away in shame to retirement in Florida. We saw what he is.
The attorney general of the United States backed this voluntary cruelty. The “top cop”. Another godammned joke of a person.
Steve in the ATL
@lamh36:
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: MAGA Habs is a mouthpiece for this crime cartel and her newspaper T’s propaganda outlet.
dmsilev
The reports I’ve seen suggest that the “compromise” will be to throw the children in jail _with_ their parents. I can easily imagine Trump claiming that as a win, boasting about cracking down on the vermin swarming across the southern border and all that. And yes, he’d probably use ‘vermin’ explicitly.
FlipYrWhig
@hitless: @Steeplejack: Yup. IMHO someone told him that he could sign a paper and get credit for having just fixed the problem someone else caused. Even though it’s a problem HE FUCKING WELL CAUSED. And when he does whatever he does and people like us say it sucks his minions will fan out across social media say “Oh, so you libtards are just admitted that you hate everything Trump does, huh, isn’t that right, huh?”
Elizabelle
@No Drought No More: That’s an interesting take. Think you might be on to something.
Trump’s a predator, and they have to be able to read the environment, for their self-protection.
Tractarian
If this actually happens, it would be part of a pattern. Just as with North Korea, Trump is attempting to extract credit for fixing a problem he himself created.
In other contexts, that would be called racketeering.
Felanius Kootea
I have cried so much in the last few days over this issue of child separation. Whatever face-saving move this psychopath comes up with in an executive order hopefully cannot be worse than the trauma inflicted on children. I’ve given to RAICES; I live in a blue state so there’s not much I can do to change Republican politicians’ minds. I will work tirelessly to elect Democrats this November because that’s the only thing that can put a pause to the madness. It probably won’t get rid of the psychopath in charge but he can at least be boxed in. And I think that restaurant protest and the reporter comments did get to Kirstjen Nielsen. They are all evil people but some are worse than others.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
She is. She also sets the whole narrative for the other reporters. Something is badly broken in their industry. Competition doesn’t seem to be working. They’re not real competitors in some essential way. They have leaders and followers and the worst often end up as the leaders.
The Moar You Know
@NickM: Thanks for that mental image, I’ll be working with a bucket next to my desk for the rest of the day.
lamh36
Starfish
@elm: This would be leaps and bounds better than what is going on now. Separating families will create orphans out of some of these children. These children will be traumatized and potentially have attachment disorders. These children will not have their medical needs properly met. One of the cases that the ACLU was working on that was older than these was of a blind child getting separated from her mother. Some of these children will be neglected by guards or abused by other children or by guards in these detention centers.
We do not put the youngest children in orphanages because we know that is very bad for their growth and development.
lamh36
Hoodie
@JPL: Bingo. We have always been at war with Eurasia. The effectiveness of that ploy may be waning, however. Saw that Schmidt ditched gop and called for election of democrats. Maybe a sign that the business arm has about had it with the Trumpkins. Some of them may be starting to realize they would have been far better off with Hillary, who was no enemy of corporate America. She probably would have gone along with some sort of corporate tax reductions, and sure as hell wouldn’t have instituted tariffs.
They probably always knew Trump was an asshole, but mistakenly thought he was their asshole. Like always, they’re a bunch of clueless, arrogant careerists, so they didn’t mind Trump as long as they got their tax cuts. But they didn’t sign on for the Nazi stuff, and getting slagged for putting brown toddlers in cages.
Elizabelle
@Hoodie: Good comment.
Betty Cracker
Did y’all see Vanessa Trump’s tweet earlier? (Soon to be ex of Dim Son.) It was a picture of her and her children spending a last night together before summer camp. She deleted it pretty quickly after getting roasted. I don’t think it’s tone-deafness. I think it’s deliberate evil.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Yes. She’s a symptom. She is not a reporter, but she is a symptom. Habs is a publicist. Why she’s in that position, I think.
lamh36
dmsilev
@lamh36: The Onion, bringing you today’s news yesterday:
Yarrow
@No Drought No More: Trump has one skill and that is being a con man. He’s done it all his life and he’s good at it. He can read a room or read a situation, con people (not all the people but enough), find weaknesses, exploit them, and walk away leaving others holding the bag. Despite all the horrific, illegal and treasonous things he’s done throughout his life he’s still standing. He’s good at that one thing.
So I tend to agree with you that something has broken through to him and his con man brain has sensed he needs to do something to take the heat off himself on this issue and put focus elsewhere.
cain
@dmsilev:
The new change is simply to jail them all indefinitely. For MAGA types, just tell them that we’re giving free welfare for illegals just so we can piss them off and give them some cognitive dissonance. It’s not like we can appeal to their better natures when they are already vile people. They only give a shit about their tax dollars anyways.
I don’t think we should be quietening down if they decide to jail everyone indefinitely. They still need to reunite the previously separated children. Trump will be looking to do the barest minimum so that it goes away from the headline.
The only true way to stop this madness is to take over Congress. That is the prize.
eclare
@Steeplejack: Internet won for the day!
Ksmiami
@Kay: good then – it will be easier to arrest them, try them and sentence them when the time comes. pS- after we defeat the gop, we have to eradicate every last vestige of their Ill-gotten gains; from judgeships to lowly clerks. This was the process in post-war Germany: so it needs to be here.
Felanius Kootea
@Betty Cracker: I do think it is tone-deafness for some. They live in a bubble and aren’t concerned about others until something forces them to be. The ferociousness of the response she got broke through her bubble and she reacted acordingly. I don’t think a Corey Lewandowski or Stephen Miller (if he had kids) would have taken down the picture.
Yarrow
@Felanius Kootea: If you live in a blue state call your Governor’s office and ask if any of these children are being housed in your state. Tell them you are against your state supporting this policy. Call your other state legislators as well, even your mayor.
Also encourage your Governor to refuse to send your state’s National Guard down to the border to assist with policing this disaster. Several blue state Governors have done this. We need all of them to do this. States need to take a stand.
CliosFanBoy
@Steeplejack: the week’s not done yet!
cain
@Kay:
I noticed that. What’s going on in ‘outside’ news organization like Al Jazeera? Can we not get a news organization that is hungry and is willing to challenge Washington DC’s current climate? I feel like we hsould get a bunch of 20 year olds (you know people who can’t go to cocktail parties anyways) and have them start going after politicians and other news organizations.
rikyrah
@Kay:
It was guaranteed to hurt non-White people, Kay.
That’s the whole life’s purpose of the KKKeebler Elf.
THIS is absolutely consistent with his life view.
lamh36
and this will be enough for the media, I’m sure
The Moar You Know
@hitless: If it didn’t automatically condemn you to eternity in hell, I’d say you should sign up with them as a speechwriter. Because that is exactly the only thing Trump can say that gets him out of this without having to admit failure.
I’ll make the utterly horrifying argument that having the families jailed together is at least a vast improvement from jailing them separately. It’s not an acceptable improvement, but at least it’s better.
There are going to have to be serious consequences for this administration and everyone attached/participating when they are finally voted out of office. Dems CANNOT do what they did in 1974 and 2006 and let these people slide again, there must be a reckoning for their immoral and illegal acts and it must be a reckoning under the color and authority of law. If not, the next one – and there will be a “next one” – will be far worse.
No Drought No More
Daily Kos: “When he actually got around to talking immigration, [Trump told congressional republicans] that first daughter Ivanka told him that the images of children look bad”.
He had to be told. I fully credit him with being honest in saying that. He had to be told.
LAO
@Betty Cracker: Oh yes — I understand it’s been deleted. Thank goodness for screen shots.
Steeplejack
Predicted highs this week in Tornillo, TX, where the latest “shelter” has been thrown up:
Waratah
I think the that the demand for information on the girls and baby’s may be the reason for this. There is no way they can dress this up.
Elizabelle
@Felanius Kootea: Agreed. I suspect it’s privilege and cluelessness. At least, with Vanessa. Some of the others are evil.
Interesting NPR just now: Democrats are saying there is no need for legislation to end the family separations, that Trump could end this with an executive order.
They want Trump to own this one, although I guess that malicious liar is going to blame the Democrats no matter what ends up happening. Albeit, more people can see through it now. Day by day.
M4
@elm:
FWIW, because context is important: according to a nonpartisan immigration lawyer I just heard on KQED, Obama’s policy was to hold the whole family in family detention for twenty days or so, while they were being processed. I’m not saying Obama’s policy was good (or bad!), just stating what the existing baseline was.
LAO
Wait, what? Fucking Giuliani.
trollhattan
Shine a light on the WH inner circle and who knows what may happen? Local dead tree news outlet spends an entire above-the-fold op-ed on nazi cockroach Stephen Miller. Hi Stevie!
Bet he made everybody call him “Stephen” when he was a kid.
Tom
@Kay: You left out the most important person of all – Stephen Miller, Josef Goebbels lookalike and author of the policy.
Yarrow
@lamh36: Even if he signs this, what happens to all the children that have already been torn from their parents? Where are they? Where are the girls? We’ve found some of the babies, but where are the girls? How do they get reunited? We can’t let up on this issue. The girls can’t be forgotten.
trollhattan
@LAO:
I’ll say this for Rudy, he lies with the cameras rolling as easily as anybody I’ve seen. Uncanny, really.
Elizabelle
@Tom: I am wondering if this could end up with Stephen Miller being fired or resigning. He’s toxic, and cannot hide his stripes.
Bannon is still out there doing a lot of damage, but at least he’s out of the West Wing.
LAO
@trollhattan: His hackery is consistent (consistently vile).
dmsilev
@LAO: Sure, I mean consider how many wives he’s separated from over the years. He knows this.
lamh36
what about the children and parents that have already been seperated? The thousands of children the HHS have lost track of?
The Moar You Know
@cain: We have plenty, run by those selfsame twenty-year olds, in fact. VICE News, Vox, Buzzfeed – there are plenty. And they bang out stellar work on a daily basis.
Very Serious Voters pay no attention to them, unfortunately.
J.
Trump is going to claim it was all the fault of the Democrats and have a big signing ceremony to end this “horrible policy.” And his loyal followers and Fox will buy it.
If we really want to make America great again, here are a few suggestions.
Chet Murthy
Unmentioned in all this outrage is the grift. Apparently it costs $779/day to house a kid in these centers. And $298/day to house a family. Somebody’s makin’ bank on the tears of these children.
Tom
@Starfish: On the subject of mistreatment of these children by guards: “A Texas sheriff’s deputy was being held Monday on a charge of “super aggravated sexual assault” of a 4-year-old girl after authorities say her mother, an undocumented immigrant, was being blackmailed to stay silent about the abuse — or face deportation.”
Gin & Tonic
@cain:
Will you pay for a subscription? People, even those who can’t go to cocktail parties, have to eat. Unless you just want rich kids who can live in DC while mommy and daddy pay their bills.
lamh36
Media already talking bout now that Chump is signing something…will the Dems overplay their hand?
The signing reportedly happening at 2pm ET
Barbara
@Hoodie: This is the bargain that the political and religious establishment made in both Italy and Germany during the 1930s. They operated as if politics is a game of chess and believe that things will turn out okay so long as they are the ones moving the pieces around. They thought they could control vicious demagogues and really, they didn’t much care for Jews or communists anyway so, you know, violence against them wasn’t actually counted as a loss. And in way too many cases, they turned those incidents into an opportunity for their own gain.
This type of person is so used to getting their own way that they can’t imagine a scenario in which the king has no patience for the established rules and moves in whatever direction he feels like. I feel special disgust for farmers, because they rely so heavily on exports and receive so much in the way of public subsidies. But they’re all opportunists at heart, without principle, and unhappy mostly because the bull in the china shop couldn’t contain his smashing and grabbing to the state of California, immigrants and “coloreds” and everyone else they don’t much care about.
Jager
Any change in the separation policy is a huge loss for trump. He doesn’t deserve any credit for fixing shit he broke. As i said in the previous thread, now put the heat on this administration to return the kids already separated to their parents and don’t let up, we can make them do it. Make them lose again.
I worked in a clothing store when I was a kid, one of the old pro suit salesmen, grew up speaking German on the family farm, the first German phrase he taught was, ‘dicker Mann mit einem kleinen Schwanz” perfect description of the fat man in the White House.
RedDirtGirl
@LAO: I wonder who he’s talking about right before the clip. You can hear him say “Pervert” and laugh, and try to engage the Fox host, (who actually looks a little uncomfortable), before being asked about the immigration issue.
lamh36
The news of the signing was broken on Fox News, and the Repubs on the Hill was not notified until the news broke…smh
As of last night, chump was steadfast, what changed…my money says, news about the “tender age” centers, calls into offices from constituents.
And my money says, something more may come out more horrific that he and Nielsen has privy to
Barbara
@lamh36: How is it overplaying to successfully stop this utterly indefensible and inhumane practice? I believe there is a place for strategy and tactics but not when we are dealing with monstrous crimes. The only goal here and now is to stop it.
Elizabelle
This is an actual headline in the WaPost this morning. Dana Milbank column. And Baud is missing in action, to see it.
Yes, family separation is bad. But what about Hillary Clinton’s emails?
OK. So which jackal is Milbank?
D58826
Der Fuhrer is running his mouth again. Some it turns out that the democrats are in favor of admitting middle eastern terrorists.
Kay
@Jager:
I agree. Everyone who spoke up should take their win and enjoy it. We beat him. He had to back down. The good guys won one round, so pat yourselves on the back. If the Right had won on baby snatching God knows what would come next, but one thing is sure- they’d be crowing that they owned the libtards.
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
I keep telling you guys — Kelly is fucking Nielsen.
I am not joking or being snarky. I really think she is his mistress.
misterpuff
No Congressional Picnic for you – if I have to stop ripping babies from their mothers.
And his trained seal Cabinet slurps him for it.
OH and a child is a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
These people are despicable.
Shut up Grandma Graham.
Elizabelle
@Kay:
Yeah. This had to be beat back.
We already missed the boat on seating Neil Gorsuch. But this was way less complicated, and repulsive enough for the average person to understand.
Ben Cisco
Betty, you are the BEST.
germy
Fair Economist
@Chet Murthy: That is a boggling level of grift. They could put up each kid in a private room at a Ritz-Carlton for less.
Platonailedit
@Chet Murthy: There is no level of depravity & corruption this ugly regime is unwilling to dive into.
Ian G.
@lamh36:
How many gigabytes of child pornography do you suppose are on Miller’s laptop?
Emma
So… I have available one shiny internets. Where may I send it?
pluky
@Kay: You forgot the primum mobile, Mr. Miller-FitzGoebbels.
Patricia Kayden
@Steeplejack: Legislation which doesn’t exist.
Platonailedit
Just.Do.It.Dood
Spanky
@Elizabelle: And the vile Marc Thiessen’s companion column, “But her emails? You’re dang right her emails“.
No, I’m not joking.
misterpuff
Correction: Slurping is being done not by his Cabinet but supine Senators.
Drumpf: We do want immigrants but we want them to come in based on merit. We want great people that will be great for our country.
Translation: We want white people.
Montanareddog
@Elizabelle:
I think of him as more of a scavenger than a predator.
pluky
@Tom: Beat me to it!
Elizabelle
@Spanky: Yeah, just saw that. I think they might have moved it to be immediately next to Milbank’s column on website. I did not click on Thiessen.
Anyhow: breaking news from NY Vichy Times:
Sounds like Schumer and Democrats got heard, loudly, but what else will be in language?
Tokyokie
@Elizabelle:
(To the tune of the Colonel Bogie March):
Donnie, he only had one ball
Sessions, had two but very small
Kelly
Had something smelly
But Stevie Miller had no balls at all.
Hoodie
@Barbara: Yep, this is a common occurrence. Most people are cowards. As they become more affluent, they worry more about keeping status than losing possession of their souls. I’ve witnessed that myself in other contexts. It’s not uncommon for a privileged group to give power to a narcissistic, abusive leader. A lot of the members of a privileged group enjoy the benefit of the group simply by the luck of being born a member, so they have little in the way of inner strength and willingly abdicate to someone who offers to do the nasty things they think they want to address their petty resentments (which really is just their curated selfishness) but don’t have the balls to do themselves. When the leader actually does those monstrous things, they’ll first resort to denial. But even they can have a breaking point.
Elizabelle
@Montanareddog: Scavenger works too.
Elizabelle
@Tokyokie: LOL!
Never knew the name. Colonel Bogie March.
Always think of it as “Comet. It tastes like Listerine. …”
cain
@The Moar You Know:
I wonder how we can help here? I’ve read articles from all of them and they are excellent. We need to shift to these new voices. (although I suspect they’ll get bought out if that happens…)
cain
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes, I’ll pay for a subscription and I’ll encourage others to as well. (As soon as I’m employed again, I will do exactly that)
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Parasite is better.
Tokyokie
@Fair Economist:
The White House would never agree to that. Not with the high vacancy rate at Trump hotel properties.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@LAO: That would sum of the Trump admin if true, the president stabbed in the back by his own chief staff because Trump only understands back stabbing. lol
Pittsburgh Mike
I wouldn’t count on it — from what I’ve read so far, they’re looking for ways to ignore Flores and just keep the kids in jail with their parents.
Tokyokie
@Elizabelle: The POWs in The Bridge on the River Kwai are constantly whistling the tune because the Japanese guards don’t know that the lyrics are insulting their Axis pals.
Jeffro
Two things:
1) I hope the Democrats keep up the pressure until every last child is repatriated to his/her parents … no reason to pretend that this problem is solved until the last kid is home and every last tent city is struck. And after they take the house this November, I hope they go after the contracts that were written to pay people to run his concentration camps.
2) really big picture, would love to see some press coverage about how this is the 18th example of Trumpov creating a crisis (Tariffs, Muslim ban, North Korea, DACA) that was totally unnecessary, and then having to back down. . Two advantages to that: it makes him look like the weekly that he is, and it points out just how well things were running under Obama – not perfect but running well .
elm
@Pittsburgh Mike: Agreed. It’s slightly(?) less evil, but still evil.
The good news in it is that they caved to pressure. The bad news is that they still want to do something vile.
Chet Murthy
@cain: While I got a WaPo subscription, I donated much, much more to Propublica. Never regretted it, and these last few days, wish I’d donated more. I also gave to Mother Jones. Again, never regretted it.
LAO
LAO
I can’t even.
Shell
Doesn’t he have a masturbation session, oops, i mean rally at Duluth tonight? Probably wants to be able to drop this in, for some more phony applause.
Elizabelle
@Tokyokie: Yes! Did not see that whole movie, but remembering a clip.
Looking up the lyrics now.
And it made its way to little kids in time for “Comet.” (Which has a few versions; different from what I learned …)
TenguPhule
@elm:
Instead of baby cages they’re gonna turn them into Family Gulags.
Every solution the GOP come up with will be worse then the last one.
Right up to the final one.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Parasite, always.
Aleta
In this admin they never seem to quit for reasons of principle and integrity.
TenguPhule
@LAO:
ICE is 3/5ths of the way to becoming Imperial Storm Troopers.
Peale
@TenguPhule: actually family cages are an improvement…sadly…but it is. What will be worse is when they start mixing criminals subject to deportation for rape and murder in with the families who applied for assylum and are being jailed until they agree to go away and never return.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
I’ve been saying this for 18 months. And they have more and more people who will follow those orders.
The rot is spreading.
Shell
I really think Trump believes he will never have to see a day in jail, no matter what crime surfaces. That he will somehow be able to deal/talk or bluster his way out of it.
Blueskies
@JPL:
BINGO!
TenguPhule
@Peale:
Too late. Those are the lowest bid subcontractors working at the camps.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: I eagerly await the next Magsplain: Trump really thought children not in danger because that’s what advisers told him.
TenguPhule
@Chet Murthy:
From the reports so far, the contractors aren’t even spending $70 per child. More like $7.
Apples, water, chips and foil blankets.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Shouldn’t trust it even then. Because dollars to donuts the lawyer will tell you that the order makes things worse.
Chet Murthy
@TenguPhule:
Yep: a grift.
efgoldman
@J.:
So fucking what?
Repeated many times; there are way more of us then of them. We just have to get off our asses and get people registered voting
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Kay, you’re a good person. I hate to break this to you, but these assholes do that ALL THE TIME.
MCA1
@Elizabelle: Only if (a) Dotard takes a beating in the polls over this, and (b) conservative media puts a big fat spotlight on Miller for it, so that the pus bag knows where to aim the blame bus. That’s how it worked with Bannon. As long as his public profile stayed low and he wasn’t the news himself, he was safe, but once he started to get tied to things that made Drumpf look bad, he was on his way out.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: I have missed you, bud. Tell it!
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
This live remake of Sophie’s Choice is unwatchable.
LAO
@TenguPhule: Unless and until the “zero tolerance” policy is revoked, the EO will be window dressing. The good news, because it will violate Flores, is the issue will hit the Courts.
ETA:
Stan
Trump is asking this question too, but in a rather different tone of voice than the rest of us
bluefish
Because this bloated fool doesn’t understand how our government operates and what it’s function is we waste days and weeks having to navigate the torrents of BS he unleashes in his misguided attempts to cover his tuchus. When the thing blows up, whatever it is, as it always does, he wakes up from his drooling fantasies to discover whatever he’s concocted isn’t going to work for him. So, dragged by the nape of the neck to fix problems of his own creation, he does so. And we move on, staggering from the impact of vile conduct, to the next FUBAR situation.
TenguPhule
@M4:
President Obama didn’t imprison families in concentration camps designed to kill them all.
Tent Cities in a Texas Summer are deathtraps.
Aleta
History repeats and DJT has his own very expensive loop.
“Considering executive action” “Ivanka met with her father”
= the headlines belong to ME
+ make people wait for my important decision
+ Faux needs a new spin toy
TenguPhule
@LAO:
And we have to pray it doesn’t land before a Trump or Bush II appointee.
columbusqueen
@lamh36: Is it just me, or should the mohel at Miller’s bris gone ahead & cut everything off?
sheila in nc
@TenguPhule: I’m sure that the bulk of the expense is staff.
Jager
@columbusqueen: Maybe he did.
Vhh
@schrodingers_cat: That Ann Coulter look alike should be gone in week.
Calouste
@Aleta: Two things to combine:
1) Hagan was connected to a sex cult.
2) Donnie Dementia, in reply to the news he was leaving, explicitly praised him for his work “on the road”.
Makes you wonder if Donnie Dementia had some late night visitors during his foreign trips.
Trabb's Boy
@cain: Buzzfeed has the best approach — 90% fluff to get the viewers, and 10% killer political scoops and action (like FOIA requests). It is the best way to avoid preaching only to the choir, and it aims toward the younger demographic.
dopey-o
@schrodingers_cat: I saw a statement recently which states that the law being cited defines exceptions. when the the law is being used as a deterrent or as a punishment it becomes basically unenforceable. IANAL
I will go back and try to find it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Do consider – Trump is a narcissist. These immigrants, like you and me, are just a scary, scary abstractions to Trump sort of like the big black guy in Trump’s head who is out to rape Trump. The real abuse it being directed towards someone in Trump’s immediate circle. If one assumes the reports of Kelly given up on Trump are true, then Trump forced this policy on Nelson makes sense in terms of this is Trump attacking Kelly threw Kelly’s friend and protogy.
I had the very same scenario played on me by a narcissist and it’s really incredible how crazy a narcissist can make things. There is a good chance a lot of the people in the Trump admin loath what is going on but are so confused and lack the will just to walk out the door. My experience was it was amazing the number of people who understood the narcissist we were dealing with was pure poison, yet couldn’t bear to just turn their backs on the narcissist.
Sandia Blanca
@Ben Cisco: I hope someone has been cataloging Betty’s vast encyclopedia of insulting names for President Babyhands. There must be hundreds of entries by now!