Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread: Keep Caring

Friday Morning Open Thread: Keep Caring

by | 185 Comments

This post is in: ,


 
I’ll be glad when this dark period is over, and I can go back to disagreeing with professional GOP strategist Rick Wilson about everything. Meanwhile, this is wise:



 
And *this* is just…perfect!

Reader Interactions

185Comments

  2. 2.

    gene108

    I was sweeping my patio and under the door mat, I found a set of keys: car keys + house keys.

    I don’t know who they belong to or why they are under my doormat.

    I could post a notice that I have keys, but then I worry that the wrong person would claim them and steal a car or burglarize a house.

    Not sure how to resolve this.

  4. 4.

    satby

    Good to see you back AL; hope the time off was for some well earned R&R. I too never thought Rick Wilson would become a voice of sanity. Strange times.

  5. 5.

    JPL

    The temperature was in the 80’s when she left, so the jacket was worn to send a message. She’s just as petty as her little finger husband.

  6. 6.

    MJS

    Of course Wilson is right, but he has played a large role in getting us here. He has worked to get people elected who constantly fight against “bending the curve the right way.”

  8. 8.

    raven

    “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2018

  9. 9.

    Kay

    .@OhioAG @MikeDeWine says comprehensive immigration reform needed and laws must be obeyed. Adds: “This country should not be in a position of separating children from their parents.” Declines to call on Trump to reverse policy or to support legislation to ban practice.

    I challenge anyone to find a more cowardly politician than Mike DeWine. He beats Rob Portman on that measure, which is saying something.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    If Melania can “inspect” a detention center, why can’t any Senators, Congress people, Governors, Mayors, within whose jurisdictions these facilities are located?

  13. 13.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @raven:

    Saw the good news about Lil Bit. Best wishes for all of you.

    And of course, Fuck Trump.

  16. 16.

    satby

    @MJS: no one reading this blog has forgotten Rick Wilson’s history as a Republican operative, and we all know he and the others loudly leaving their party had a hand in getting it to that state. But they’re allies now, and considering their previous role, valuable allies. Because they undercut the “both sides equally bad” flotsam put out by the villagers. Former partisan Republicans are saying out loud “not the same, my side is bad”. And they get media attention.

  19. 19.

    satby

    @gene108: seems likely someone intended to leave those keys for a neighbor. That your near neighbors haven’t asked (depending on how long ago you found them) might mean the person left the keys under the same address, wrong street.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gene108: Yeah, and you should be able to identify the vehicle and also the brand of locks the keys open as the key heads and stems are all brand specific. So if you get a hit it should be fairly easy to determine the validity of it.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @OzarkHillbilly: Because Melania isn’t visiting in good faith. No one in this shitstorm assmalistration or the shitstorm party that is the GOP is operating in good faith. It’s IMPOSSIBLE for them to do so.

    Wipe them out. All of them.

  22. 22.

    raven

    @The Ancient Randonneur: We’re trying to sort through here “issues”. The literature says she will dry cough for a time after the procedure and maybe permanently. I was thinking I wanted her close at night in case she had a full blown episode but she coughed all night and I moved her out to the living room and I “slept” on the couch. I’m going to call the vet and ask for input.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    I don’t care about Rick Wilson- I’m not clear who he is- some Republican, that’s clear- but I have trouble with “we’re better than this”. No one improves by saying “we’re already better”. Better means something. It’s a comparison. To me it’s the definition of resting on your laurels.

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Kay: Given that in so much of our history we were no better than this…native genocide, slavery, Jim Crow, etc. it’s pretty obvious that no, we’re not better than this…we’ve been brainwashed by our own ideals that it seems a healthy percentage of Americans do not share with us or Rick Wilson, for that matter.

    So we need to recommit to making those ideals a lot more of a reality in this country than they are. From FDR to LBJ we were making progress. Then the shitty grade Z movie star came along…

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Because she called ahead and cleared the visit with the people who run the place, which is not really an inspection :)

    What’s real. She wants the real story. So she planned a visit to a carefully chosen site with her giant advance team. Asking the tough questions, she is. On the front lines of her husband’s war with 6 year olds.

  28. 28.

    Bobby Thomson

    @OzarkHillbilly: She didn’t meet with stolen children. She cancelled a trip to a detention center because it was too hot (!) and instead visited a nonprofit location housing unaccompanied minors that were not separated from their parents.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Because Melania isn’t visiting in good faith.

    Of course she isn’t, and neither are their arguments against allowing any elected officials, but if she can, again in quotes, “inspect” a detention center, DEMs need to get on their pulpits (news shows) and demand that they be allowed to as well. Loudly. And repeatedly.

  30. 30.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Villago Delenda Est: What I think we have to be taught is that the struggle is eternal, and you can move forward just as fast as you can move backward, and vice versa. The most sad thing about the way teach history is that we teach it as if “Bad thing happens, people fight, problem gets solved (forever).”

    And we know, throughout history, progressive (for the time) cultures can be undone by internal or external strife, and terribly regressive cultures can be undone by the same.

  32. 32.

    satby

    @Kay: @Villago Delenda Est: studies consistently show that optimism is more attractive as a personal quality and as a vote-getter in elections. Even Hillary’s optimism carried the last election by 3 million, without some ratfuckery she would have been president. In recovery circles, they tell participants to take it until you make it; I would consider the entire country to require recovery after this sorry episode in our history. Saying “we’re better than this” isn’t factually correct, but as an aspiration it’s a “fake it til we make it”.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Too, these achievements were a long time ago:

    native genocide, slavery, Jim Crow

    FDR was a long time ago. Not sure we should still be patting ourselves on the back. There’s no rule that says advances have to be 100 years apart. Maybe that’s too slow and we could try harder. Better. Does the world end if you give yourself an honest C+ and try for a B? Maybe that’s the lesson of Trump. We could really use some improvement and we won’t die if we admit that. Maybe a tougher grading scale is in order and this is a wake up call.

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    ‘morning all.

    In other news, BlueVirginia – 4th Circuit stays essential fracked gas pipeline permit:

    RICHMOND, VA — Today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of a crucial permit that the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) needs to build across waterways.

    Under section 404 of the Clean Water Act, the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is charged with issuing a permit for the pipeline’s stream crossings that allows the project’s builders to trench through the bottom of those streams, including the Greenbrier, Elk, and Gauley rivers, and fill the crossings with dirt during construction of the pipeline. The permit issued to the Mountain Valley Pipeline by the Corps is commonly known as a “nationwide permit 12,” which takes a one-size-fits-all approach.

    The MVP is a 300-mile-long, 42-inch pipeline requiring a 125-foot right of way construction zone that would cross streams, rivers and other waters in West Virginia and Virginia more than 1,000 times. Because MVP’s own documents shows it cannot meet the conditions required under the nationwide 404 permit in West Virginia, the streamlined permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers is unlawful. The effect of today’s court order is to prohibit MVP from construction activities in 591 streams and wetlands in West Virginia and it may affect construction along the entire route of the pipeline. Under its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorization, pipeline construction is allowed only if MVP has secured all federal authorizations.

    The court issued the ruling in response to a motion filed by a coalition of environmental advocates, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates.

    […]

    Good, good.

    I haven’t kept up with the details of this project, but we have environmental rules and laws for a reason. If the pipeline is so important that it needs to be built (and I’m not at all sure that it is), then it can follow the rules about environmental studies and permits and construction techniques to minimize or eliminate environmental damage during construction and operation. These attempts to do an end-run around the rules must be stopped.

    And that’s before we consider the environmental impact of the fracking process itself, and the environmental impact of methane releases at the source, the CO2 produced in burning the fuel, etc., etc.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  36. 36.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Kay:
    “What’s real. She wants the real story. So she planned a visit to a carefully chosen site with her giant advance team.”

    But…she doesnt care about the press.

    I know, pointing out the obvious.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: SOP. One winter’s day I got thrown into a suburban STL jail. Before I was led downstairs to the cells, the cop apologized but said he needed to take my boots. I shrugged thinking “weird thing to apologize for, that’s what they always do.” and took off my boots. As I was being led down the stairs I was hit with a wall of heat and the stench was almost intolerable. When I got to the bottom I realized why he apologized: The floor was littered with shit, otherwise known as fecal matter. So were the walls. So was the ceiling. The temp inside was over 100 degrees because the steam lines for the whole building ran thru the jail (remember, it was winter and as I work outside I was wearing long underwear). The cockroaches were as big as SUVs. I was only in there for about 12 hrs before my bail got made, but I was on the edge of insanity by that point, dreaming up various schemes to get out (“Bang my head on the bars, lot’s of blood, that’s the trick, they’ll have to take me to the hospital then”)

    24 hrs later I was at a restaurant with a friend relating my experience when I realized doing nothing was not acceptable. So I called a Post Dispatch reporter. As I was telling her about it I began shaking like a leaf. I demanded she never give up my name. I knew she wouldn’t but I needed to here her say it.

    Called her back a couple days later. She went, they denied her entrance, told her to come back the next day. It was still hot but shiny and clean and the 2 other inmates (Morris the donut thief and James the dope fiend who hit his mother) had nice clean clothes.

    “At least they are being treated as humans now.” was my only thought. A small enough victory.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Not that it matters with the Trumps, but it should also be noted that if she was sending some childish, petulant message with the coat then her staff lied when they were asked about it. I don’t know if she was sending a message because Trump lies all the time too so he might have made it up, but her employees said there was no message. So once again we got a pack of lies even in something as simple as a pandering political appearance with cute children, which any normal public figure could pull off in their sleep. They can’t even do that. I don’t know how you make the visit with children nasty and ungenerous and all about yourself but the Trump Team managed it.

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: What a horror. :-(

    Thank you for speaking up and making things better.

    It seems trite at times, but the WaPo slogan “Democracy dies in darkness” really is true.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Steeplejack: And as I have pointed out, it’s theater, obvious theater, and it can be weaponized against them. We need to. That is all I’m saying.

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    CNN story:

    [Melania] Trump, CNN and other members of the media were at a facility with children aged 12-17. The portion of the trip designed to show a family processing facility was canceled due to severe flash flooding in the area.

    Upbring New Hope Children’s Shelter, part of Lutheran Social Services of the South, is a Department of Health and Human services-overseen facility, which operates with the assistance of HHS funding.

    Trump was greeted by Upbring CEO Dr. Kurt Senske, who outlined Upbring’s five markers of success: safety, life skills, health, education and vocation. The facility opened in 2014 and currently houses 55 children. Of the children—27 boys and 28 girls—approximately 10% arrived in the United States with their families and have since been separated.

    Trump, during a roundtable with officials, asked how often the children speak to their families by telephone, how they are emotionally cared for on arrival and on average how long they stay at the facility before being placed elsewhere.

    The first lady stopped to visit with children in three separate classrooms during her tour.

    This is even more infuriating. It’s clear this facility is for long-term care—classrooms?!—of older children and has little or nothing to do with the current “zero tolerance” crisis. Only five or six of the children were separated from their parents (10% of 55). The rest apparently arrived as unaccompanied minors.

    When I got on the Google to look this up it was interesting to see how many news story headlines said that Melania had visited a “detention center,” which would lead all but the closest reader to assume that what was being talked about was one of the facilities that have been in the news this last week.

  45. 45.

    EZSmirkzz

    Do not ask for whom the bell tolls:

    “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2018

    it tolls for thee

    We all have our opinions Mr. President. Stormy weather I hear.

  46. 46.

    Barbara

    @Kay: My thoughts as well. I also do not accept explanations or efforts to shape her message after the fact. You said you didn’t care and I’m tired of being asked to keep twisting reality to make you seem better than the evidence shows. I do think they are trying to use her.

  47. 47.

    Platonailedit

    You can always trust the traitorous thug and his equally despicable ‘family’ to make it all about them, babies be damned.

  49. 49.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Kay:
    It matters. It was more important to send a childish meangirl eurotrash message, than care about those kids. I get their message loud and clear.
    Any slack I may have cut her, is gone. Feckless nazi c**t.
    (Was that redundant?)

    * totally unrelated: mid week here in Chicagoland it was high 90’s. Today, 60’s and rain.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I guess I don’t understand who Melania is battling. She’s sending us a message with her coat? Can she not speak? We wouldn’t have even see her passive aggressive sniping without the Guardian reporter, so should they not cover her publicity stunts? How will we know she’s mad?

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @MagdaInBlack:

    When my daughter was little and I would punish her she would write me notes. Like an indictment- “Count One, On or about…, you did THIS, which was UNFAIR”. But she was 12. It’s just juvenile behavior. The coat is marketed to teenagers and there’s a reason for that.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: When it comes to Melania, it’s all an act, as stipulated in her pre-nup. Whatever her real views and thoughts may be, they are subservient to greed. That’s the only value she acts upon.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    “Count One, On or about…, you did THIS, which was UNFAIR”.

    I got my laugh for the day.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I just think timing matters. None of them cared when Kelly and Sessions announced the policy, back in May. Kelly said they were going to “foster care, or whatever”. The huge outpouring of caring from the Trump women coincided exactly with the peak of the public outrage. This is how we judge credibility and sincerity. We’re not picking on Melania. Laura Bush got credit for being quick off the mark. That’s how it works.

  61. 61.

    EZSmirkzz

    Now here’s some real real manure fresh from the horses ass;

    “It’s impossible to feel anything but compassion for these kids, who must be dealing with a great deal of pain and confusion,” wrote Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “But the origin of that pain and confusion isn’t U.S. law or the Trump administration. That burden lies with their parents who knowingly put them in this position.”

    Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, wrote in a blog post that the crisis at the border is “a complex consequence of bad policy, unenforced laws and an inability of politicians to make difficult and often unpopular decisions.”

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/muted-reaction-by-pro-family-groups-to-separations

    We can conflate moral issues and political issues when it suits our political ends! Same Republican manure, different topical discussion.

  62. 62.

    Shantanu Saha

    Rhode Island bill would keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he files his tax returns

    The headline should say the bill would keep Trump and Sanders off the 2020 ballot…

  63. 63.

    delk

    Just wanted to say thanks for all the kind words yesterday. Gav was a good boy and the house is very quiet this morning.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    She has a good moral sense. I would read it and think ‘that was hasty, that decision – I really didn’t get her side of the story”. Your appeal is well-taken. Reversed.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @EZSmirkzz:

    Well, funnily enough, the duty really doesn’t lay with their parents. Not anymore. When the Trumpsters took custody they accepted responsibility for those children. Which they (now) know. Hence the panic and the complete and utter capitulation.

    Experience matters. Knowing what you;re doing matters. Acting on spite and racism and their own nasty, mean spirited impulses sometimes bites them in the ass. As here.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    If his government email record is to be believed, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has sent a grand total of one email to anyone outside of the EPA in his first ten months on the job, causing watchdogs concern as they try to figure out how else he is communicating and if he’s covering his tracks.

    According to a Friday Politico report, EPA spokespeople maintain that Pruitt prefers to conduct business in person or over the phone, accounting for the microscopic body of correspondence.

    Banking on trump’s pardon power is not a smart move.

  77. 77.

    debbie

    There’s a raging debate on my FB page that I’m struggling not to jump into (because I know it would do no good and because I don’t want to get anywhere near those hateful people), and there are actually people who, while they don’t like the jacket, condemn reporters for reporting this like it’s “tabloid journalism.”

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah: the judge is a complete idiot and her decision means nothing except that lawyers will make more money on the very short appeal.

  80. 80.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    He beats Rob Portman on that measure, which is saying something.

    For sure! Of course, the alternative is Larry Householder. No prize either.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    No, she’s a PA.
    None of our kids are lawyers. I don’t know what that says but they wouldn’t even take an existing practice, which they could have. They just had no interest. They all answered phones or did filing at one time or another. None of them pursued it. I thought the youngest might but he says he’s a musician and he’s moving somewhere where there are more of them :)

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    “authoritarian and statist elements”? Screw this guy. The dark horrors he’s talking about are the New Deal and Great Society. He’s trying to draw a line from liberalism to Trump.

  89. 89.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Asking the tough questions, she is.

    Steven Colbert ran a bit of the visit on his show last night.

    (Warning: Paraphrasing follows)

    Melania: “What’s the average time a child will be kept here?”

    Facility Official: “42 to 45 days.”

    Melania: “That’s great.”

    Gah!

  90. 90.

    Dorothy Winsor

    I wonder if people like Wilson and Rubin will just revert to horrible after Trump goes. Taking on a different role can create a slightly different person.

    Aren’t I a sunny little optimist today!

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie:
    @rikyrah:

    Zara is not a designer, per se; it’s a Spanish retailer: fast fashion department stores. Kind of H&M, but nicer quality. Very popular with young people; kind of upscale.

    With some very awful choices, which happen enough to make us wonder if there’s something going on behind the scenes. In addition to the children’s pajamas, striped with a gold star, there have been a distressed denim miniskirt embroidered with 2 Pepe the Frog type characters, and an African looking bag that has four green swastikas along with a wild animal and other detailing.

    The skirt designer said he had no idea there was a Pepe the Frog out there, and actually took the design from some frog drawings he did. Which may be true.

    But these are three designs that got past executive review and out into the stores. Management should have known better. Making you wonder if they’re deliberate provocations to get people talking about the brand.

  99. 99.

    D58826

    This is what I don’t under stand about the reasonable conservatives

    Believing we can work to get to a better place has driven us through the worst obstacles

    . Working to that better place sounds progressive. We started as a country in which only white male property owners could vote. Today we have universal suffrage (at least in theory). Do conservatives really want to go back to the days where the air in LOS Angles was green most of the year. Or rivers routinely caught fire? In 1964 when I got my drivers license we were killing 50K people a year in traffic accidents. Today, for a number of reasons, that is down to less than 40k in spite of more cars, smaller cars and more miles driven.

  101. 101.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Well he has been a major creator of horrific Republican attack ads for more than a decade. He was/is (?) also some kind of MTVjay. Temporary “ally” at best. He fucking helped create this bullshit so his speaking out now is literally the least he can do. Lee Atwater was his mentor in the ’88 HW campaign.

    ETA He learned well because IIRC he was behind those Saxby Chambliss ads that viciously attacked Cleland. So fuck Wilson.

  102. 102.

    germy

    @Steeplejack:

    As Bobby Thomson said, Melania didn’t visit a “detention center.” That visit was canceled—because of the threat of flash floods, according to a White House spokesperson—and she visited a church-run shelter instead. One report said that location housed only six children.

    CBS Evening News called it a “surprise” visit.

    Which surprised me, because the shelter had a big banner that said “Welcome Melania”

  103. 103.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    Seems similar to mistranslations on products from China back in the 1980s and 1990s, I suppose, but still inexcusable. Spanish isn’t as far removed from English as Mandarin is.

  106. 106.

    D58826

    quote from the CBP agent Ruiz who interacted with that little girl on the cover of Time.

    He was the first to encounter Sandra Sanchez and her daughter after they allegedly crossed the Rio Grande River into Texas illegally.
    “We asked her to set the kid down in front of her, not away from her, she was right in front of her…So we can properly search the mother,” Ruiz said. “So the kid immediately started crying as she set her down. I personally went up to the mother and asked her ‘Are you doing OK? Is the kid OK?’ and she said, ‘Yes. She’s tired and thirsty. It’s 11 o’clock at night.’

    Ruiz said he and his fellow agents represent more than just the Border Patrol logo.
    “We are also fathers, we are also sons, we are also have families, and we do care, and we do our jobs, and we treat these people as humanely and as best as we possibly can,” Ruiz said.

    Solomon had it easy. He only had one baby to cut in half.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/border-agent-involved-with-dramatic-photo-of-crying-girl-breaks-silence/ar-AAz0g88?ocid=spartandhp

  107. 107.

    D58826

    @germy:

    Which surprised me, because the shelter had a big banner that said “Welcome Melania”

    banner must have been supplied by the same Mr. Nobody company that provided the ‘Mission Accomplished ‘ banner

  108. 108.

    Barbara

    @Elizabelle: Well, if you remember Benetton, it definitely went with very provocative ads to boost the “buzz” around it. Benetton no longer has any physical locations in the U.S. but they do still sell clothing, much like Zara. But they seem to have dropped the effort at provocation.

  109. 109.

    debbie

    @sat: @Elizabelle:

    Good, glad they’re gone. I understand it was visual, but someone had to sell the items to the store buyers. We don’t know how the pitch was worded.

  112. 112.

    MomSense

    @Barbara:

    Didn’t Benetton do ads that were very progressive though? I remember they ran ads with interracial families, gay couples kissing, and that they were pushing inclusive messages.

  113. 113.

    Chyron HR

    @germy:

    CBS Evening News called it a “surprise” visit.

    Well, I mean, there was at least a 10% chance she was dead so it’s a little surprising to see her in public.

  114. 114.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay: PA is a good career choice. You raised good kids. My elder son graduated from law school a few years ago. First lawyer in the family, but a rough time to be starting a career in that field.

  119. 119.

    Gelfling 545

    @JPL: The thng is I can’t imagine why a prominent adult woman would have such an item in her wardrobe. Rock star, artist, actor maybe but for someone involved even peripherally in politics it’s inexplicable. I know any number of teens/college age kids who might wear it but no afults.

  123. 123.

    Platonailedit

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection told a group of South Texas officials earlier this week that the federal government plans to move forward with private land seizures in the Rio Grande Valley to build sections of Trump’s border wall. https://t.co/1XVHEGXr0M— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2018

    trumpanzees – the leopard is eating is my face, the leopard is eating my face. maga that, you bigots.

  124. 124.

    germy

    @Gelfling 545:

    The thng is I can’t imagine why a prominent adult woman would have such an item in her wardrobe.

    And when was the last time she wore a $39 jacket?

  126. 126.

    D58826

    we are all going to die –

    Pompeo: “I was there when he said it. He made a personal commitment. He has his reputation on the line in the same way that we do…we’re going to create a brighter future for N. Korea. We’re going to denuclearize just as quickly as we can achieve that.”

    Only question I have is will he keep hos word before or after he murders the next 500k of his citizens and any family members that he may have left. And Pompeo, among others, spent 4 years investigating Benghazi because they did not trust HRC to tell the truth under oath.

    https://twitter.com/JChengWSJ/status/1009958648028848128

  128. 128.

    Calouste

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hopefully people can do the same thing they did last year after the facts: film these neo-Nazis, identify them, contact their employers, and get them sacked. I wonder how many White House and congressional staffers and interns they will catch.

  129. 129.

    D58826

    @Kay: I would never wear a Boston Red socks cap becasue I’m not a fan (well might during post season play but that is an exception). Have to pry my Phillies cap from my cold bald head. Clothes send messages. There was a time when onlt the emperor could wear purple, etc….

  130. 130.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: “Statist” is one of those words that’s a tell. It means “both sides are tyrannical but really Democrats are worse”.

    Well, maybe I shouldn’t be too cranky that Wilson got his little dig in. It’s a fight for another time, probably.

  131. 131.

    Trabb's Boy

    Sarah Kendzior says Melania’s jacket is an intentional distraction and a common tactic for authoritarians — get people to stop talking about something horrific by making them talk about something personally revolting but small. Then they can argue about how petty you are.

  132. 132.

    germy

    i'm going to go out on a limb and say that ivanka posting a picture of her son, melania wearing that "i don't care" jacket, and two immigration hawks making public outings to mexican restaurants are……. not thoughtless blunders.
    — josie duffy rice (@jduffyrice) June 21, 2018

  134. 134.

    D58826

    @Matt McIrvin: I wonder if folks like Wilson, Rubin, Boot, etc will, in the post Trump world, recognize that liberals.progressives/democrats/what ever are the loyal opposition. Just because they see a different way to solve a problem (foreign or domestic) doesn’t make them traitors.

    But then politics like war can make for strange allies. And I know war is just politics by other means

  139. 139.

    germy

    When the Russians turned out to have nothing on Hillary, one the Trump Tower meeting participants told me, “The light just went out in his eyes. He was totally disinterested.” My profile of the President’s eldest son and namesake: https://t.co/DlfPNMiTzY— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) June 21, 2018

  141. 141.

    Chyron HR

    @Trabb’s Boy:

    Getting kind of tired of these “You fools, they’re just pissing their pants to distract you from from when they shit their pants!” takes.

  143. 143.

    rikyrah

    Young Trumpies Hit D.C.… And D.C. hits them right back.

    excerpt:
    There’s always tension when administrations change in Washington; a new cast of characters arrives, and an influx of appointees, lobbyists and hangers-on have to stake out their own ground. But the era of Donald Trump is—as in so many respects—different.

    Washington is a hipper city now than it’s ever been, a place where staffers, especially young staffers who want to drink and date and live normal millennial lives, would want to live. The problem is, if you work for Trump, it’s also more hostile territory than it’s ever been. The president campaigned against the very idea of “Washington,” slammed cities as “war zones” and ran a racially charged campaign whose coded messages weren’t lost on the diverse, Democratic-leaning residents of D.C.’s buzzing neighborhoods. The bar-filled areas that became synonymous with young Washington in the Obama era—Columbia Heights, Shaw, U Street, H Street—are full of anti-Trump T-shirts and street art. Even old Republican redoubts like Spring Valley in upper Northwest aren’t very Trump-friendly.

    So, what’s a young Trumpie to do? Many still do live in D.C., and to understand what their lives here are like, we interviewed more than 30 millennial staffers from the Trump White House and across the administration, both current and former (many have already left), as well as a smattering of their friends and outside observers. Nearly all spoke on the condition of anonymity, to talk candidly about their personal lives or because they were not authorized by their bosses to comment. They told us their horror stories about being heckled on the street and their struggles to get a date. Unlike their predecessors, who made their mark on the city’s social scene, they largely keep to themselves, more likely to hop between intimate apartment gatherings than to hit the town. “Instead of folks looking outward,” explains one young White House aide, “more folks look inward.”

  144. 144.

    rikyrah

    From wearing a “pussy bow” right after the Access Hollywood tape was released, to her #BeBest campaign, to her jacket yesterday in Texas – Melania is trolling us. https://t.co/nssUyWpD4G

    — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 22, 2018

  145. 145.

    rikyrah

    A girl tried to open a window at a detention center for minors. A supervisor threw her against a wall & choked her.

    “The supervisor told me I was going to get a medication injection to calm me down…the doctor gave me the injection despite my objection.” https://t.co/dznLcGGLXJ

    — Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) June 22, 2018

  146. 146.

    rikyrah

    Follow the money.

    The so-called “compromise bill” being considered by House Republicans would free up $7 billion for family detention.

    Amid the crisis are CoreCivic and GEO, which saw a 3.5 and 1.8 percent bump in their stock prices Wednesday. #SWAMPhttps://t.co/BYETTmBgLv

    — Harley Rouda (@HarleyRouda) June 21, 2018

  148. 148.

    satby

    @NotMax: I did, thanks. Fortunately, Etsy has been handling that anyway since several states had already been applying taxes to online purchases.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    It’s not an accident that the US government is making it so difficult for journalists, lawmakers, lawyers and others to bring you images and firsthand accounts from these separated parents and children. They are hiding the truth from you because they fear your reaction.

    — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 21, 2018

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    The president believes that stories of migrant children being ripped away from their parents are “phony stories of sadness and grief.” pic.twitter.com/qdQMKl0pEs

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2018

  151. 151.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Must say I’m disappointed by RBG.

    Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch formed the majority.

  154. 154.

    matryoshka

    @Barbara: This kind of mind-fucking is really taking a toll on me. Melanoma is “caring” as performance art while signaling very clearly, in every way, that she DOES NOT CARE. It’s a level of brutality that works on us at a very deep level. Everything loses its meaning, as Betty (I think) noted in her post the other day.

  155. 155.

    rikyrah

    Trump urges Republican lawmakers to drop immigration effort
    By Doina Chiacu

    29 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers on Friday to drop their efforts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation until after the November elections, which he hoped would bring more party members into Congress.

    Trump, faced with a public outcry over his policy that separated children from their migrant parents at the U.S. border with Mexico, tried to refocus the immigration debate on Congress in a series of early posts on Twitter.

    Despite Republican control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the party’s slim 51-49 majority in the latter chamber makes some Democratic support necessary to pass most legislation.

    “Elect more Republicans in November and we will pass the finest, fairest and most comprehensive Immigration Bills anywhere in the world,” Trump said on Twitter. “Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November. Dems are just playing games, have no intention of doing anything to solves this decades old problem. We can pass great legislation after the Red Wave!” he said.

  157. 157.

    debbie

    After months of being a “principled Christianist Conservative,” Glenn Beck has gone full Trumpster. In less than an hour, I’ve learned that Melania’s jacket is clearly Photoshopped; that the photo of the crying child (red shirt) is bogus because the mother took the child from the father and got caught with American smugglers nowhere near the border; and the Time Magazine cover of that same child with Trump is bogus because he has never been near the child. Beck insists the Dems are desperate and he “predicts” they will lose very big in November.

    Beck is horrified by the “left’s” constant attacks on Trump. It’s as if he forgot his own behavior during the eight years of Obama.

  158. 158.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    Trump’s poll numbers have been micro-inching up, which tells him what he’s doing on immigration is a winning issue. Frenzy to follow.

  159. 159.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    Nice move, R.I. What’s really needed is for this to become law in California, or New York, or Illinois.

    Also, five years? Why not seven? That’s what’s wanted, to show just how broke he was before being made Looter-in-Chief.

  160. 160.

    FlipYrWhig

    @debbie: The reason he does all those rallies is that it “proves” to him that the people overwhelmingly love him and that the media is lying about it. He doesn’t understand sampling. He’s also just very stupid about everything.

  161. 161.

    The Moar You Know

    Just wanted to say thanks for all the kind words yesterday. Gav was a good boy and the house is very quiet this morning.

    @delk: Of course he was. I am so sorry.

  162. 162.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: @FlipYrWhig: I’m not counting any chickens, but the fact that they’re trumpeting his surge to 42%, with an outlier showing 45!, is comical. Annoying how many VIPs are solemnly buying into it.

  164. 164.

    Rileys Enabler

    @delk: Ah, I’m so sorry, Delk. Gav was a lovely boy. A lovely good boy. Jedi hugs if you’d like them.

  165. 165.

    MagdaInBlack

    @rikyrah:
    Late late reply:
    Have you looked at the radar? This weather is wrong. We dont get our weather from the east.

  166. 166.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    I’m happy to trust Wilson about as much as we trusted Stalin during WWII. He’s a necessary ally, but don’t give him too much leeway or he’ll hoover up Poland.

  169. 169.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I think with conservatives like Wilson and so on denouncing the Republican party and joining the Resistance isn’t so much some ideological change (as John Cole has explained, deprogaming from Wingtardation doesn’t happen over night), it’s these conservatives realize for all their purity markers in the Culture War, it’s they who the Trump admin’s end game is really targeted at. As Tactis wrote those closest to Caesar have the most to fear – Caesar sees them the most and demands the most loyalty from, Once its has been established that child confiscation for accused criminals is a legitimate means of law enforcement, it’s a real short step from immigrants children to the Trump admin confiscating the children of Republicans who don’t clap long enough at the State of the Union Address or don’t vote the way the Trump wants or donate enough to Trump or asked a question outside Trump’s comfort zone at some meeting.

  170. 170.

    japa21

    @MagdaInBlack: Sometimes we do, but this is getting ridiculous. Since May 1, Chicago has gotten more rain since they started recording such things in 1872.

  172. 172.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Mnemosyne: No permanent allies, only permanent interests, as the Brits used to put it. Remember it was the virulently anti-Bolshevik Churchill who did a volte-face after Hitler invaded the USSR, saying “If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”

  174. 174.

    trollhattan

    @D58826:
    Nope. They’ll fall back on old, comfortable ways that instruct “liberals are the real problem.”

  175. 175.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Again, not counting any chickens, but it would be fitting to the whole trump saga if an alliance of Stormy Daniels and Roseanne Barr’s ex-husband brought him down

    erica orden @ eorden
    Tom Arnold interviewed Michael Cohen for Vice.
    Arnold: “This dude has all the tapes — this dude has everything.”
    “I say to Michael, ‘Guess what? We’re taking Trump down together, & he’s so tired he’s like, ‘OK,’ & his wife is like, ‘OK, f*** Trump.’”

  176. 176.

    germy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tom Arnold is just as flaky as his ex wife.

    He’s been saying stuff like this for a year. He’s always claiming something “big” is just around the corner. A video of drumpf beating in wife in an elevator, outtakes from the apprentice, etc.

    He has nothing. Just looking for publicity for whatever bullshit project he’s currently doing on an obscure network.

  177. 177.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @trollhattan: Maybe, this is the kind of thing that gets someone thinking. Most likely it will be ten years of “But Liberals” as these people move more and more to the middle and eventual realize the Republicans are never coming back from crazyland. The fact that they went against their own tribal purity marker means it will be hard for them to backtrack.

  179. 179.

    MCA1

    @Chyron HR: Haha! Like the goth kids all dressing alike to make a statement against conformity.

    How hard is it to dress appropriately for the role of First Lady? Jeezus, get some f’ing class, Melania.

  180. 180.

    MCA1

    @japa21: That following the coldest April in recorded history here. In the first 20 days in April, we failed to reach a high temperature ten degrees BELOW the average high temperature for that date in…18 of those 20 days. It has quite literally been three straight months of f’ing trash weather here. We’re 12 days from the 4th of freaking July and haven’t had more than 10 “good” days to be outside yet. I always hate Spring here – it’s the pits – but this year has made even me wonder why I live here.

  183. 183.

    sgrAstar

    @delk: I am so sorry, delk. Thinking about your Gav brings back some bittersweet memories. ❤️Dogs❤️

  185. 185.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    The president believes that stories of migrant children being ripped away from their parents are “phony stories of sadness and grief.” pic.twitter.com/qdQMKl0pEs

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2018

    Of course he does — he has never felt sadness nor grief, ever, in his whole life. Except perhaps for that time he paid $25,000,000 to settle the fraud lawsuit against his Trump University; That probably hurt about $25MM worth.

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