CNN, circa 1943: “Germans Divided on Use of Gas Chambers: Opponents claim it is monstrous, proponents say ‘Hitler just following laws created by Hindenberg'”
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?
Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.
Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.
We still have time to mess this up!
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
All your base are belong to Tunch.
An almost top 10,000 blog!
Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.
Their freedom requires your slavery.
My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.
Accountability, motherfuckers.
But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.
Usually wrong but never in doubt
The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.
If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.
“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”
It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.
The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.
I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Consistently wrong since 2002
You are here: Home / Today in Your Failed Corporate Media
rikyrah
nope. not divided.
it’s good vs. evil.
plain and simple.
Ric Drywall
The faces of Real America
jl
Can the Onion sue them?
They can’t sue Trump I guess, probably some legal thing about public policy can’t be plagiarized from satire. But this?
schrodingers_cat
No apostrophe after law.
scav
Apparently, so long as there is a single white male convinced he’s not being treated appropriately, we are an equally divided nation.
Got it.
CNN’s “Good people on both sides.” moment.
ETA: And in CNN’s Bible, the Devil gets equal billing and airtime.
John Revolta
“I can’t tell you what I think yet- Rush doesn’t come on ’til noon.”
Villago Delenda Est
My nym. Again and again.
Wipe them out. All of them.
ruemara
I kinda want to smash my head into my desk until I’m insensible.
Yarrow
The people who support taking kids from families are evil.
jl
I can’t find Millicent, the ‘inspector inspector’ who always says “Well, that might be true but only up to a certain point”.
germy
jl
They have SHS there, apparently on her WH press Secty podium, like she has an independent opinion!? What a sad joke this is even on its own terms.
? Martin
Deliberately separating a child from a parent in order to deter the parent is a form of torture to both the child and the parent. It’s no different than a mock execution or other forms of psychological torture.
I do not understand how that is not in every headline.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Good for Nancy.
trollhattan
@germy:
Damn, bringing the boot, Nancy. Nice!
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Walk all over the shitgibbon, Nancy!
jl
@? Martin: The corporate media is simply incapable of reporting out that is going on. They can’t report out the facts about a federal government that simply lies all the time.
Immigration, legal or illegal simply does not increase crime, despite some well publicized tragedies that involve an immigrant. There is NO law at all, from W or Obama administration that forced Trump to adopt this policy, it was a voluntary very optional stunt of choice thought up by the administration. NO Congressional legislation, other than one simply forbidding Trump from continuing with his vile stunt, is needed, none at all. Trump is not defusing any crisis created by anybody but voluntarily by himself with his executive order, it is more dishonest misdirection. They are simply unable to honestly report it.
Trump could come out and say that you can take ice cubes from the freezer and light them with match to heat your house, and the media wouldn’t be able to report that it is a stupid falsehood. They are corrupt and broken.
Luckily, Trump is likely to fold if he faces determined popular opposition, or is forced to make any effort at all on one of his schemes. That might be all that saves the country.
Edit: Trump likely to fold upon even hearing solid reports of planned mass demonstrations and general strikes around the country, for example. I’m signing up for every planned Trump protest I see from now on.
sukabi
Someone needs to be checking all Stephen Miller’s hidey holes, guy has serial killer written ALL OVER himself.
The sooner he’s not whispering in drumpf’s ear the better.
trollhattan
Campos at LGM has an interesting post about somebody who did a LinkedIn search and listing of members who work for ICE (now archived). Big list, think I’ll see how many locals are part of the klub.
ETA Just a few. And here’s the weirdest job title I’ve ever seen: “Intelligence Analyst, Human Smuggling Cell”
Hungry Joe
From “I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years,” by Victor Klemperer
March 17, 1933
“But unfortunately on Tuesday evening we had the Thiemes here. That was dreadful and the end of that. Thiemes — of all people — declared himself for the new regime with such fervent conviction and praise. He devoutedly repeated all the phrases about unity, upward, etc. Trude was harmless by comparison. Everything had gone wrong, now we had to try this. ‘Now we just have to join in this song!’ He corrected her vigorously. ‘We do not have to,’ the right thing was freely and truly voted for. I shall not forgive him that. He is a poor swine and afraid for his post. So he runs with the pack.”
Mandalay
Nielsen to Trump at his press-conference-without-questions just now: “Thank you for your leadership, sir”.
Trump to Nielsen: “Thank you, great job”.
jl
@? Martin: No crisis on the southern border. No new huge unexpected wave of unauthorized entries. Documented evidence of lawless and unconstitutional behavior by ICE. Pens built from chain link and metal posts to hold dozens of people are cages, pens, cells, containers, not ‘temporary rooms’, which is true even if the chain link and posts are very shiny and new (believe that or not, it is a fact);.
The list goes on and on. The media is too compromised by a variety of corrupt influences, habits and motives to simply report simple facts. And as the graphic at the top of this post shows, they can’t even do competent self-satire anymore.
? Martin
@jl: I understand that, but there have to be limits, somewhere, in a decent society. I would think psychological torture of children would be over that line, but I guess not.
LAO
jl
@? Martin: Sorry for rant. I figured you knew that. But there are no lower limits for the corporate media when they are afraid, or even merely coming up to a discomfort zone. We found that out during the W years in the run-up to the disastrous Iraq invasion.
randy khan
So Trump has signed the new executive order. No details yet, but I’ll bet that the suggestions that the order will violate the existing consent decree are right.
LAO
Here’s the EO. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/affording-congress-opportunity-address-family-seperation/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wh
AliceBlue
@germy</a
"Are you ready boots? Start walking!"
LAO
@LAO: And — it’s just as shitty as we expected.
sixthdoctor
Are any news outlets publicly asking “moderates” (Collins, Corker,Flake, McCain, Murkowski) why they won’t withhold judicial confirmations until separation policies are truly reversed and the families are reunited? Ive seen this floated by Slate and Brian Schatz among others and it seems to be a good pressure point…
LAO
And, I didn’t notice it but:
Mandalay
Just now, an MSNBC lickspittle dutifully regurgitated the White House narrative that Ivanka Trump had been diligently working behind the scenes on resolving the issue.
No mention that she has been in hiding for days and has made no public statement.
schrodingers_cat
@randy khan: It will imprison families seeking asylum indefinitely.
Pogonip
You want corporate media? I’ll give you corporate media. A friend in Clumbus Ahia, home of THE Ohio State University, tells me the local fishwrap, the Columbus Disgrace—er, Dispatch—tells me the teeny-tiny paper, about the size and shape of the TV guide you get in a normal-size paper, will be going up in price to $3 weekday, $4 Saturday, and $5 Sunday.
Vulture capitalists bought the Disgrace a couple of years ago, and when I heard about it I thought “I give it 5 years before they drain every last penny out of it and then kill it.” My estimate was too long.
Elizabelle
@Mandalay: Name the lickspittle. And complain to MSNBC. They should not be carrying the Trump family’s water; trying to burnish their reputations.
schrodingers_cat
@LAO: You have to forgive them, English is their second language, Evil Moron, their first.
jl
@schrodingers_cat: Explains why Trump wildly swerved towards judge bashing yesterday. Someone explained (or attempted to explain) the next step in the plan to him, after he revealed he wasn’t capable of putting in the effort required to cooperate with GOP Congress that was very eager to help him further the current version of the scam.
I doubt he was told it would be a good idea to reveal the new version of the scam by going apeshit on judges before he signed the bogus EO. Trump probably couldn’t help himself. A demagogue has gotta demagogue. He couldn’t even wait until he signed when he should wait until the courts rule against it.
Trump would fail a five second marshmallow test.
Elizabelle
@LAO: They pulled it down.
Maybe they’re correcting the spelling?
Yarrow
Since we apparently can’t walk and chew gum at the same time as Adam asserted we could last night, here’s a tweet about the status of destroying healthcare. I’d hoped David would post something. Maybe he will later. We need to add this topic to our list of issues when we call our reps.
Betty Cracker
I think we jinxed my grandmother the other day by reserving a cabin to attend her 100th birthday party in November. She took ill Monday and is in the hospital. It’s pneumonia, which she had and improbably overcame last winter. The doctor said then he had NEVER seen a 99-year-old recover from pneumonia. Can she beat the odds twice? I wouldn’t bet against her.
Anyway, this isn’t totally off topic because it has to do with divided families. I’m going up to the panhandle this weekend to help my mom’s siblings look after my gran. Mom was the liberal black sheep. I know this Trump baby jail issue will come up, and I am not prepared to be civil about it. In fact, it’s possible I will leap across an old lady’s potential death bed and throttle one of her surviving children, even though that would be bad form. I may require a bail fundraiser.
Ohio Mom
I just got home from a bunch of errands and appointments, so I might have missed it if this has already been noted.
The front page NYT article, “Republican rifts hinder solution on split families,” explains that the Senate has one plan (note: actually two but one comes from Democrats and I suppose therefore doesn’t count) and the House another.
“Mr. Trump declined to explicitly back either one, saying he would sign both bills.”
schrodingers_cat
@jl: The “compromise” immigration bill Ryan is bringing up tomorrow does the following
1. Provides for indefinite detention
2. Eviscerates the asylum process
3. Only 10% of current DACA holders will qualify for the path to citizenship
4. Slashes legal immigration
5. Strips due process from those caught in an ICE dragnet
In short, it is no compromise.
Jager
@Mandalay: She was in Fresno stumping for Kevin McCarthy, made a stop in LA too. I guess she was really “behind the scenes”, I’m sure she enjoyed Fresno. a lot.
Yarrow
Also:
Santorum is such a terrible person. He needs to go away.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Best to your grandmother. Pneumonia’s tough. I hope it is not her time.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: Made calls on both topics today.
jl
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks. Looks like Trump put on such a miserable show when he met with them to hash out the details of what scam to pass, that plan is on hold for now. let us hope for good.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Don’t worry, we will have jackal fundraiser for you, and legal representation from one of our legal eagles. I hope your granny feels better.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker:
Have at it. We’ve got yer back.
jl
@Jager:
” I’m sure she enjoyed Fresno. a lot. ”
I for one say ‘no’ to exiling any Trumpster to Fresno. Collective punishment is wrong, period. I have kin down there.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Gotcher back. We’ll hold a “Battlin’ Betty’s Bail Ball” fundraiser in the old barn.
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you. I have yet to call since I’ve been sick and need to get my energy up to call.
trollhattan
@jl:
Nunes’ district or in town?
Fresno remains the only place I’ve had to pay a shopping cart deposit to leave the store with one.
ruemara
@Betty Cracker: Put me down for $20. Sending healthy vibes to Gran.
Mandalay
@Elizabelle:
I was listening in my car and didn’t catch her name, but you make a valid point, and next time I have the goods I will complain to them.
Incidentally, the Daily Mail has a funny/pathetic piece on Ivanka Trump at a White House meeting today. There are the usual photos of her oversized fake breasts in a sweater that is deliberately too tight, but also one of her thoughtfully chewing her pen like a kid who is completely lost in her first trigonometry class.
There are no adults in the room when Ivanka (36) meets her dad (72).
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Let me know!
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: Fingers crossed for your grandma. She’s one tough lady.
germy
germy
link
jl
@trollhattan: Collective punishment is wrong, whether Fresno, or Visalia, or anyplace else. We can’t stoop to their level.
jl
@germy: Heh, Now all we need is Avenatti on TV promising to write a nice letter to help with his sentencing if he turns a new leaf and cooperates.
zhena gogolia
@jl:
Yes, that would be good.
germy
@jl: Cohen has been making noises like he wants tr*mp to pick up his legal fees. Like he’ll sing if the money isn’t forthcoming.
Will tr*mp pick up the check? The meal is finished.
Yarrow
@germy: Trump doesn’t pay for anything.
jl
@zhena gogolia: @germy: i was only half joking. Avenatti has already talked up in an interview about how vastly better things would go for Cohen if only he would cooperate, and he would be glad to help. I don’t know the legalities of how it would work.
Raven
We’re picking up the little girl and had a bit of a pleasant surprise. When we brought her to the ER they asked if we were going to have the procedure done here. We said yes and they gave us a ballpark between $2500-3500. I was sure that would be above the ER charge but they only charged us $2800 total!
Bex
American Airlines is refusing to transport children taken from their parents. Good for them!
rikyrah
ALL of the parents and ALL of the children who were snatched from their loving arms need to be brought to ONE location NOW, so they can be reunited. This is DOABLE, ffs. And no one should trust a bleeping word in trump’s EO. We must stand ready to verify anything and everything.
— @joboomr44 (@joboomr44) June 20, 2018
japa21
Rush is actually partially correct. There is a manufactured crisis at the border. The idea that we have a major “illegal immigrant” emergency at the border is totally manufactured.
Also, the pro-kiddie jail crowd like to talk about Obama’s catch and release policy, which didn’t really exist. Instead of prosecuting those that were caught crossing illegally, they were just immediately sent back. Those that came in seeking asylum were properly released to await their hearings. Even those caught entering illegally, however, could ask for asylum and, IIRC, were processed as if they had come to a normal entry point.
efgoldman
@? Martin:
Which, you may remember, were okely-dokely with W’s DOJ.
germy
@Yarrow: That’s what Roger said.
rikyrah
@Raven:
Glad you got her, and have the positive economic news.
rikyrah
Since the new Trump EO says its “maintain family unity” policy only applies “to the extent permitted by law,” and the admin claims the law does not allow them to maintain family unity, did anything actually just change?https://t.co/s0IWvXIj9y
— Andrew Rudalevige (@rudalev) June 20, 2018
Teddys Person
@germy: He’s so pissed Dolt45 cut him loose. Apparently, he missed the memo outlining how loyalty is a one way street in Trumpland.
Yarrow
@Raven: That’s great news! Saw your concerns about making sure she doesn’t aspirate. Is that going to be an ongoing issue or only while she heals from surgery? I bet you’re so glad she’s home with you guys!
HeleninEire
@rikyrah: Keep missing you. How is peanut?
trollhattan
Krugthulu goes there.
jl
@rikyrah: I guess one of the BJ legal team has to weigh in. But my take is no, not really. Trump just chickened out, or demonstrated that he is incompetent to go ahead with the initial plan for the scam, and is punting it to the courts. The EO reportedly is almost sure to be struck down.
Edit: except it may change the separation policy for right now. If someone in the Trump administration is competent enough to recognize what a horrific mess they have made (probably some W or Obama career Deep State hold over), they will stop that policy and try to clean up the complete mess they’ve made.
I’d be very interested in reading more informed views on it.
Dorothy Winsor
@schrodingers_cat: Is it possible to strip due process from people in the US? How would that be constitutional?
randy khan
@schrodingers_cat:
Sounds like a consent decree violation to me. I mean, besides being inhumane and probably a violation of our treaty obligations.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Dorothy Winsor:
And even more worryingly, it could become precedent. Anyone could be stripped of due process rights.
Chet Murthy
@Dorothy Winsor: IANAL, but:
(1) the constitution only accords due process to “persons” in the US
(2) the courts have in the past ruled that “persons” are those who have been lawfully admitted to the US. There was a case before 9/11 of a man who had a green card, was returning to the US from overseas, was stopped at passport control, refused admission, and later convicted of aiding terrorism on secret evidence. His lawyers argued that his due process rights were violated; the court ruled that he didn’t have any, b/c having been denied entry (note that he was standing on US soil at passport control) he wasn’t a person under the Constitution.
Maybe things have changed; I’d bet they’ve gotten worse, not better. Obvs. an undocumented immigrant who crossed without permission would not be a person, by the description above.
There are probably other rulings and laws in play. Probably treaties also. But it’s a complex and fraught thing, who is a “person” and who is not, for the purposes of Constitutional protections, is all I’m saying.
Villago Delenda Est
@japa21: It’s been manufactured by Donald and his lackeys. The “alien invasion” is bullshit. The “pourous” border is bullshit. The number of asylum seekers is small, easily absorbed by the country, and will be more productive members of society than say any random Koch or Mercer.
HeleninEire
@Betty Cracker: Oh Betty. God speed to Grandma.
Faithful Lurker
@Betty Cracker: Let us know if you need the bail fundraiser. I’ll be happy to contribute. I work at the local food bank where several volunteers are enthusiastic Chump supporters…I couldn’t even look at them today. Stayed as far away as physically possible.
Yarrow
@HeleninEire: Hey there. Just wanted to say I’m glad you’re posting here and I enjoy your perspective on things both in Ireland and in the US. Keep on keeping on.
HeleninEire
@Spanky: Count me in.
jl
@randy khan: I’ll be interested to read if they have cut and run from the plan to push the unneeded Congressional legislation on it. There are several versions, one with the indefinite detention, and one that, as far as I understand it, is a disguised catch and release policy, and one is Cruz’ plan for bum rush rapid fire adjudications.
From what I read, Trump’s meeting with GOP Congressfinks were disasters, and the real masterminds where afraid to forge ahead in the face of popular backlash that was out running the pace of their scheme. So, maybe they are biding time so they can try it again.
Something else where I’d be interested in reading informed commentary.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@schrodingers_cat:
Isn’t that a human rights violation? Indefinite detention without due process sure seems like a human rights violation to me. Also, great optics for our decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, especially given our stated excuse of withdrawing re: allowing nations with poor human rights records be allowed in.
HeleninEire
@Raven: Love to Lil Bit
trollhattan
The man who blessed us with Sarah Palin decides enough is enough.
oldgold
Ivanka:
An arsonist, who starts a fire, and then, after considerable damage has ocuurred, puts out the fire, deserves no accolades for being a firefighter, even if he is your ‘Daddy.’
japa21
@Villago Delenda Est: Exactly right. But the base sees a M-13 member in every one that crosses.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Chet Murthy:
This is stupid. All human beings should be entitled to the same rights under the Constiution when in situations like the one asylum seekers now find themselves in.
Mandalay
@Bex:
It’s even better than that:
Before that, an AA flight attendant had written an damning article titled “I won’t work flights that separate immigrant kids from families“.
From that article:
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: I’m down. You go.
japa21
@Faithful Lurker: Somehow that seems really odd. The volunteer at a food bank, implying they have hearts that actually beat and can feel empathy, yet they support Trump who doesn’t and can’t.
D58826
@japa21: The base sees an MI13 member in anyone whose skin color is less that snow white
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Sending positive thoughts for Grandma.
If you need a GoFundMe for bail, just contact Cole, and we’ll chip in, BC.
schrodingers_cat
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: @Dorothy Winsor: Check this Twitter thread.
efgoldman
@japa21:
Thee most racist of the mouth breathing flying monkeys live in the whitest portions of the whitest states in the country, and have largely never encountered an actual black person or Hispanic in the wild. Funny how that works.
Go blow up a meth lab
Yarrow
Trump has a rally in Duluth tonight. A reporter who is there took some photos of the merch. Apparently they’re selling a new shirt that says, “Who’s Your Daddy.” Retch.
rikyrah
@HeleninEire:
She’s fine. She just needed the reassurance. The pictures of the kids upset her, and she knows fundamentally that it’s wrong what’s happening. I told her to pray extra prayers at Mass. I’m not Catholic, but Peanut is being raised Catholic, and faith is comforting to her.
Teddys Person
@Yarrow: “Who’s Your Daddy” is pervy and bad enough. But that picture on the poster beside the t-shirt is surreal. That’s how the Trumpers see him – a buff action figure. Gross.
Raven
@Yarrow: forever
Yarrow
@Raven: Oh, gosh. That’s going to be a challenge. Hopefully you can figure out some things that work for her to make it easier. Poor girl. At least she’s home.
@Teddys Person: Yeah, it’s hilariously ridiculous. It’s like he’s Rambo. He could not be further from Rambo.
Mandalay
Ivanka tweets to end her silent exile. You might want to have a bucket beside you when you read it:
Thanks daddy, for fixing the problem you caused.
Josie
I posted this on the thread below by mistake:
I just watched the video on Facebook of three young people from RAICES describing what they will do going forward. They are absolutely focused on legal representation and reunification. These people are the real deal.
ETA: They are setting up a new server to handle the drastically increased traffic and hope to have their site up tonight.
Keith P.
@sukabi: Splinter just published Miller’s cell phone number
rikyrah
From Forbes: about Wilbur Ross:
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
UH HUH
UH HUH
schrodingers_cat
From Philip Wolgin’s Twitter feed.
japa21
@Mandalay: And rightfully getting fully roasted in the comments, which run at least 10-1 against her and daddy.
efgoldman
@Teddys Person:
It is now a cult. Always was, i guess, but now it’s out and proud.
Advantage: Most cults are closed and insular, and spend more time and energy seeking out and punishing heretics rather than reaching out. Long term it’s a losing strategy
Dan B
Anybody else heard that the congress pushed through massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security while we were “distracted” by the family separation crisis?
Villago Delenda Est
@Teddys Person: Their delusion is sickening. My hatred of them continues to grow as they are the dutiful cult members who don’t realize they’re marks. Too stupid to realize it.
gvg
@germy: I think it’s been brought up before that if Trump pays or the RNC, they can be considered to trying to coerce testimony. In other words it’s unethical and a bad idea. It also came up in clinton’s impeachment. Witness tampering.
scav
@Mandalay: “Oh, Goood Daaadddy for picking up poopoo Daadddy made on living room carpet! Good Daddy cleanup for dinner party Good Daddy put away his clever clever self-made pooopy by smearing it in guest’s mouth, but maybe not do that next time clever daddy?”
FlipYrWhig
@japa21: They don’t understand what asylum is and they DEFINITELY don’t understand that the people in question who are crossing the border from Mexico _aren’t Mexicans_. Frankly I’m not sure if they know there are other countries past Mexico. Like that old quip about British xenophobia: “wogs start at Calais.” For Trumpies it’s dirty messicans all the way south.
FlipYrWhig
@Dan B: They PROPOSED them, they didn’t accomplish them.
rikyrah
A reminder…Trump lost, and lost badly today. This was a PR, political, legal, and moral disaster and it’s unspeakably awful for him.
Also, Manafort is still in jail, Michael Cohen is ready to squeal, and the dumb spin on the IG report got overtaken by events. pic.twitter.com/0WIg6dhLBf
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 20, 2018
efgoldman
Well, well. The flaming asshole Kobach, not the brightest page in WestLaw has told his satraps to slow walk the judge’s order to restore voting rights.
I’m no lawyer, as you know, but I don’t think it’s a very good idea to defy and piss off a federal judge who’s already cheesed off at you.
It’s Sneezer time for contempt in Kansas
jl
@rikyrah: Maybe why I heard a clip of Trump going on an unhinged rant about STRENGTH versus weakness on the radio news this morning, as he was purportedly explaining the order he was going to sing today.
Yarrow
@Dan B: Yes, I’ve been posting on the healthcare stuff. Not sure it’s passed both houses, but can’t seem to find good info. David Anderson seems to be MIA.
Mike J
@FlipYrWhig: You don’t understand the way it works.
“Democrats are so dumb, Republicans are doing X while they’re distracted by Y.”
or alternately:
“Democrats are so dumb, Republicans are doing Y while they’re distracted by X.”
germy
@gvg:
I guess this means he’ll be doing it.
WereBear
@Yarrow: That shows just how far from reality these Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies are.
japa21
I would like to see every news story on the EO start with “Trump backed down” or “Trump caved”. Any story that makes it sound like he is a hero in this should immediately be trashed.
Yarrow
@WereBear: I find it really disturbing. They need someone to tell them what to do and punish them when they misbehave. They’re all weak followers. No wonder they’ve fallen for a two bit con man and bully who promises to “own the libs” and hurt those who can’t fight back.
Teddys Person
@Yarrow: @efgoldman: @Villago Delenda Est: They worship a draft-dodging miscreant, and at the same time, criticize the service of actual veterans. This asshole probably has a life-sized copy of that hilariously ridiculous poster.
Aleta
@japa21:
“Cowardly Ryan Won’t Run But He Can’t Hide.”
jl
@japa21: I predict no more headlines today. The media is in shock because their canned ‘Stalemate in Congress’ and ‘Why are Democrats obstructing’ that they were ready to run have to be trashed for now.
Maybe good news. The rest of the day will be human interest stories. Fire departments are rescuing cats stuck up in trees all over the country!
Yutsano
@efgoldman: From the article:
Is she TRYING to get her boss jailed?
Elizabelle
I am thinking of the children, on airplanes, maybe for the very first time. Whatever did they think?
I would bet that enough eyes are now watching that those children will be reunited with their parents, at least the vast majority of them. The wild card here is that the Trump administration is so goddamned careless and clueless that they could very well lose some kids in their care. At least for a while. Who knows what kind of crummy contractors they’ve enlisted, making it all up on the fly? Also, with numbers of that sort, you are going to see some poor health and accidents and just plain bad things happen. Put several hundred socialites in a cage with insufficient planning (and there’s an idea) and something there is not going to far well either.
Oh wait, we’ve already seen FyreFest.
But I think the situation will improve for these kids and families. Sooner rather than later.
What would happen if the governors showed up at facilities in their states? Do they turn the governors away? Go, governors!
scav
Come to think of it, the baby Jebus was a tender little infant in arms as his parents fled into Egypt to escape violence in his birthplace. Trump and his Evangelical base would have been waiting at the border eager to rip the little brown baby from his mother’s arms and put him in a cage some unknown where.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
They all fantasize about finally getting to be the abuser themselves rather than the abuser’s victim. I guarantee you that every person who buys one of those shirts would say, My daddy beat me with a belt until I bled every day of my life, and he was right to do it! No, my grown kids don’t talk to me, the ungrateful bastards. And after all I did for them, too.
Teddys Person
@Yutsano: JFC, adults with grown-up, paying jobs say this shit. I. Can’t. Even.
jl
Josh Marshall twittering out confirmation that the Trump EO is just a new version of the scam to give the rascals 20 days breathing room.
@joshtpm
And there you have it. The Admin knows the executive order is illegal. Starts a 20 day countdown until Trump blames the court for forcing him to separate families.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1009544400266055680
Edit: except Trump can’t help himself and started pre-blaming and bashing the courts yesterday. I guess he understood that much of the plan when Miller and Kelly (and Ryan and McConnell?) tried to explain it to him.
Edit2: I have to wonder how much Trump’s two disastrous meeting with GOP Congress prompted the EO stunt. Congressional GOPers have several poison pill plans teed up to ‘resolve’ the fake immigration crisis today or later this week. But Trump was so nutso and incompetent, clear that schedule wasn’t going to happen.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Agreed. Or some version of that. “I had to go get my own switch for my daddy to beat me with and he beat me until I bled. If it was good enough for me it’s good enough for my kid.”
Mnemosyne
@scav:
If I had any artistic talent, I would do an op-ed cartoon of baby Jesus being yanked out of a weeping Mary’s arms while the Egyptian border guards say, “King Herod’s decrees aren’t our problem, lady. You need to obey the law and not come whining to us.”
Elizabelle
Do you think Trump is going to draw a big crowd tonight? In Duluth?
Reporters and protesters, sure. But you have to be the worst of the worst to turn out tonight. I am hoping they are going to see smaller crowds.
Which can be the story, and which headlines will trouble Trump hugely.
ETA: I love thinking of the merchants who were going to sell that merchandise, of Rambo Trump and big daddy Trump, taking a bath on the cost of goods and having to donate the stuff, as rags or clothing bound for foreign countries. (With brown people!)
And then those folks, who have more sense than the intended purchasers, can use them in folk art, and blow them up and burn them in effigy.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
If she’s being raised Catholic, you could encourage her to write a letter to Pope Francis. He’s already been condemning the Trump administration over this, so she would probably get a nice reply back.
Teddys Person
@Elizabelle: I don’t know. Hear they’ve got some pretty sweet swag.
Seriously, those adoring crowds give him such pleasure, and I’m hoping the gods aren’t in a pleasing mood.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
I feel like Crow watching that movie:
“End! END!!”
Mike in NC
@Yarrow: Oh, gotta love the poster with Fat Bastard dressed up like Rambo with rippled muscles and an M-60 in his small hands. About as far from reality as it gets.
Teddys Person
@Mnemosyne: This is a great idea!! Doing something always makes one feel less hopeless/sad/angry (even for a short while).
Ohio Mom
@japa21: Nah, when thuglicans do things like volunteer at a food bank, it’s because they are living their perceived truth, that churches and other volunteer organizations can do what government can’t.
Never mind all the aspects of government that make the food bank possible: for instance, the tax advantages of being a non-profit and most of all, the tax advantages to the corporations that donate their products. There’s an argument to be made that food banks’ biggest beneficiaries are the supermarket chains that get to unload stuff they don’t want. Which include a lot of junky food.
jacy
Sen. Burr of NC tanked the Republican’s spending cut bill.
WaterGirl
@Raven: Nice surprise. Will your pet insurance cover a good chunk of that?
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
I’d consider buying either “Who’s Daddy?” or “Whose Daddy?”
Kay
It’s funny to watch all the Trump employees who enthusiastically backed this now pretend they were hugely concerned about the kids. Bullshit.
They’ll round up kids and put them in detention camps when ordered to- that’s all you need to know about any of them.
Trump is taking creepy weirdo Stephen Miller with him to Minnesota. When the Trump employees are good boys and girls they get a ride on the big airplane. Miller must be upset he won’t be rounding up any more 6 year olds.
Yutsano
@jacy: He actually gave a reasonable reason why. It was going to cut one of his pet bugaboos. Man things are getting weird out there.
@Teddys Person: Adults with probably minimal to no legal education. Seriously, the judge could probably cite her as well.
Ohio Mom
@jacy: I don’t think that one vote, while encouraging, means all that much; they’ll have other votes to shred the social safety net soon enough.
danielx
@germy:
Never happen.
Mandalay
@Ohio Mom:
In Guatemala I met an American who lived there. We walked through a large outdoor market that had gazillions of large used leather shoes for sale. She explained to me that church organizations in the USA would ship mountains of used shoes down to Guatemala for the tax breaks they could claim. Guatemalans are fairly small in general so the small shoes were snapped up, putting local shoemakers out of business. Nobody wanted the larger shoes so they sat there on market stalls in Guatemala instead of being put to good use in the USA.
So even when you are absolutely certain that you are helping others through your good works, you might not be really. Don’t mess with the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Ohio Mom
@Kay: Not just the Trump employees, also congresscritters like Portman have been acting like they cared about the kids.
Every time I called his office this week, I was assured he was working on it. Just like last summer with health care. He is apparently a very slow reader, writer, and all around worker. Never gets his work done in anywhere like a timely manner.
raven
@WaterGirl: No pet insurance for her, she’s been a walking pre-existing since we’ve had her.
J R in WV
@trollhattan:
Aldi’s grocery stores cost a $0.25 to get a cart off the pile of carts outside the store. You get the quarter back when you plug your cart back into the queue. I’m OK with it since it’s just a a quarter and you get it back when you’re done shopping and loading into your vehicle. And if you walk off with the cart, it only costs a quarter.
jacy
@Ohio Mom:
I’m for any small sign of a fraying front. There’s going to come a point when the calculus of going along changes. Who knows where it starts…..
jonas
@? Martin:
If you don’t view them as human, it’s a lot easier. Trump explicitly referred to them as “vermin” yesterday.
debbie
Someone seems to have published Stephen Miller’s phone number on Twitter, and now Twitter’s suspending anyone who shared it. Hope he got more than a few juicy messages.
Ohio Mom
@Mandalay: I imagine the shoes are just one instance in the grand scheme of things.
I wrote that about food banks because my friend the social worker used to work at the largest one here in Cincinnati. The amount of holiday candy Kroger’s dumped on them was astounding. She always had extra stuff like candy Easter eggs she wanted to share with me. Yum, yum, cheap chocolate Santas sure make a nutritious super.
J R in WV
@Raven:
When we had our Clyde cared for at the Vet hospital in Columbus Ohio, he had a neurosurgeon work on his spine, successfully. The whole thing was about $3k. He recovered completely after losing the use of his hind quarters. The MRA showed adhesions in his spinal cord, probably from a fall off the steps or deck.
ER, MRA, stay, surgery, phone calls to keep us informed, the works. Worth every penny! The surgeon was a genius and a healing angel.
Lived many active years running the high ridge along the north edge of the farm.
ETA: So glad your furry baby appears to be doing well… best wishes!!
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
Portman’s response to the detentions has been gentler than a kitten’s whisker. He has got to be removed from the Senate.
debbie
@jacy:
Mmm, I’m beginning to sense a soupçon of a hint of panic from the GOP. Lovely!
efgoldman
@debbie:
Internal polling in their states and districts must be horrifying – and that doesn’t count the cowards, like Granny Starver, who have already bailed
Elizabelle
@jacy: My guess is, it has already started.
Trump’s supporters, who don’t have the sense not to watch Fox News or listen to Rush: who cares about them. Unreachable unless you take away their supply.
But elected officials? Who aren’t reality TV stars?
Would love to be a fly on the wall.
Here’s an extra little prayer that an investigation into the NRA and other illegal financing is going along swimmingly, behind the scenes.
tomtofa
Not to be outdone by CNN, the NYT headline:
‘Trump plans order to defuse border crisis’
by. . . yes, it’s Maggie.
Aleta
Brace for “Ivanka worked tirelessly behind the scenes to advocate for the children, making calls from the Oval Office and softening Trump’s stance in the process.”
jacy
@Elizabelle:
And the repeated proof that Trump will throw anybody under the bus — not even throw them under the bus, but chop them into chum and feed them to sharks, makes a difference. Eventually even someone as craven as any member of the Republican party has to realize that it’s not in their best interest to handcuff themselves to somebody wearing a bomb and screaming conspiracy theories.
Mike in DC
@tomtofa: Editors pick the lede lines, not the reporters.
raven
@J R in WV: Great!
The Pale Scot
@Ohio Mom:
The ones at mine stay in the back so they don’t have to meet clients because “I’d be judgmental”
And that supply source is winnowing with the emergence of tech that can re-direct it to stores that specialize in food near it’s expiration date
john fremont
@Mandalay: And the reason these airline employees can take stands like this, they have unions getting their back! The airlines are one of the last private sector industries that are still unionized that the public is familiar with.
PJ
@Mandalay: There has to be more to that story, because churches don’t pay taxes and wouldn’t have a need for tax breaks. But it is true that a lot of humanitarian aid is an excuse for a US industry to get a tax break, or for the government to subsidize an industry by buying their products and distributing them for free in developing countries, thereby driving those industries out of business in that country, or making it very difficult for them to develop. Here is a related article about clothing donations: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/2015/feb/13/second-hand-clothes-charity-donations-africa
JPL
@debbie: Maybe they are no longer afraid of him. The emperor has no clothes and small hands.
debbie
@JPL:
They’re afraid of him. They’re just more afraid of not getting reelected.
hilts
@Mandalay:
I heard CBS News’ Major Garrett say that both Ivanka and Melania worked behind the scenes to persuade Trump to act. How fucking dumb is he and the rest of the White House Press Corps to try and sell us this bullshit?
hilts
@Aleta:
Ivanka and Melania both belong in Hell alongside the flag humper in chief.
Aleta
@Mandalay: They’re so transparent. Her people reuse the same language in these press releases. They’re low cost unimaginative people who don’t even write something new. Business templates is what they learned, and they’re sticking to it like a superstition.
TenguPhule
@hilts: Hell refuses to accept them. Cites that even evil has standards.
WaterGirl
@jacy: I’m wondering what happened with your last ditch effort to avoid another custody battle. Is there an update you can point me to if you are tired of talking about it? Hoping it went well, but suspecting that’s not the most likely outcome.
JR
“French divided on use of guillotine. Particularly those who have been subjected to it.”
WaterGirl
@raven: I wondered about that, but was hoping that wasn’t the case.
Aleta
@hilts: They spent 18 months curating and branding their signature
fragrancesissues, caring about kids, and he just tossed their credibility onto his gasoline fire.The Lodger
@JR: Well, if the body is over here and the head is over there, I’d certainly call that being divided.
hilts
@TenguPhule:
Good point!
@Aleta
I’m beyond fed up at the stupidity of so many pundits and WH press corps stenographers who continue spinning this fantasy that Ivanka and Melania are capable of empathy.
NotMax
@JR
Right up until final results were tallied, it remained neck and neck.
J R in WV
@hilts:
I would believe Melania had some empathy, she has no Trump genes. Ivanka, not so much. No genes shared between them.
NobodySpecial
@jacy: I saw the quote of Murkowski saying ‘I don’t agree with any of this’ right before she voted yes. Fucking rubber spines on all of them.
Chris Johnson
@NobodySpecial: “Yes you do. That’s what voting yes MEANS. You agree with all of this.”
BroD
Sure, let’s fight to protect the unborn but, once they’re born, take them away from loving parents and lock ’em up.
I’d forgotten what American greatness is all about.
Bokonon
@japa21:
The way that the right wingers spun that was “Obama didn’t care about the kids! He turned them out into the Sonoran desert to die … Trump cares, and is giving the children housing!”
The bad faith … it is just overwhelming.