Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

In my day, never was longer.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“woke” is the new caravan.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

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

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Everybody saw this coming.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You are here: Home / Immigration / It Can Definitely Happen Here

It Can Definitely Happen Here

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So, this is happened a short while ago:

Check out that chyron! The White House staged this event solely so Trump could exploit the grief of the people on that stage to foment fear and hatred against an entire class of people whose overall crime rate is lower than that of native-born U.S. citizens. You won’t be surprised to learn he lied his ass off, painting a picture of marauding brown hordes pouring across the border to menace innocent Americans.

Trump has been doing this since the campaign, and it’s always been slanderous and hateful. But now Trump is cranking up the demagoguery. He’s lashing out in response to the “baby jails” debacle and setting the stage for the midterms. He knows his base responds to xenophobia and racism, so he’ll keep escalating as the election approaches.

The “Angel families” designation is catching on beyond the White House communications shop and Fox News. That’s not good. I sympathize with the folks Trump is using — they’ve suffered a grievous loss. But so did the families of the innocent people murdered with an AR-15 by a white gun nut from Nevada. The designation “Angel families” is not a harmless honorific; it’s designed to demonize immigrants.

Today, the Trump administration slanders undocumented immigrants. It’s a short step to drop the “undocumented” part. And eventually, they may even name the group they really want to exclude and demonize: non-white “others.” That’s how it works.

If, FSM forbid, Trumpism wins, I don’t know that we’ll have full-scale ethnic cleansing in the United States. But it’s not like we haven’t been down that road before — we have.

People have already died as a result of Trump’s anti-immigration demagoguery. It’s easy to dismiss incidents like the killing of the Indian engineer in Kansas as a hate crime by a deranged person, but then we have the president demonizing undocumented immigrants at the White House today, using eliminationist rhetoric like “infesting” on Twitter while giving orders to the military to prepare to intern 20K migrant children on American soil.

It can definitely happen here. It’s up to us to stop it, and one thing we can all do is to push back against rhetoric that makes demonizing a class of people easier. It’s a small thing. But at the same time, it’s not a small thing at all.

Reader Interactions

186Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    Pound on Republicans, pound on the media, organize, speak out. We have ’em on the ropes, otherwise he wouldn’t be completely losing his shit like this.

    The gurgling coming out of the Mango Menace’s face hole is the sound of his maladministration swirling down the drain.

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    Here is a roll up of a great Twitter thread by David Rothkopf about flirting with nationalism leads to bad things.

    Couple samples, but the whole thread is recommended.

    The backlash to globalization it turns out is not just protectionism–though there is certainly that. As it has manifested itself with Trump, UKIP, Orban, Salvini, the Russian-supported Euro-right, the “opposite” of globalization is ethnic cleansing, racist nationalism.

    We are now discovering the costs of our naïveté. It turns out the stakes were not just the speed of reform of trade laws or the nature of economic reforms. The stakes were how the world would view the entire post-WWII international system.

    After World War II, the average man and woman in the street had seen the cost of global conflict, could still taste the menace of fascism, and gradually saw the benefits of integration, global cooperation and the stability it brought. We took all that for granted.
    As we are now discovering, we must not make that error again.

  3. 3.

    efgoldman

    one thing we can all do is to push back against rhetoric that makes demonizing a class of people easier

    I agree, but it has to be an indirect push, via congress and governors. Pushing back directly gets nothing – he’s impervious to truth or correction.

  4. 4.

    jl

    Thanks to a very important post, Lady Cracker.
    I think one thing that people can do is always complain to media, local or national, whenever they dive into lazy kabuki theater crap coverage without calling out Trump lies.
    Contact media, a call, a letter, an email, social media shaming, whenever you see media not doing its job, not finding and reporting the facts.
    The Trumpster line that immigrants cause increased crime in the US is an archetypal example of the Big Lie, and it needs to be called out whenever and wherever it appears.

  6. 6.

    khead

    Weird. I was just going to page you or Cole in one of the threads below, Betty. I just couldn’t muster up the proper indignation in a comment.

    Be sure to look at the photos of the loved ones that are being held up. Trump signed the photos. I didn’t catch it until a friend pointed it out.

  7. 7.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    The “Angel families” designation is catching on beyond the White House communications shop and Fox News. That’s not good.

    Evidence?

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    How many times have we talked about Republicans viewing “The Handmaid’s Tale” as an instruction manual?

    They’re moving on to “1984.” It will be interesting to see who Trump casts as Goldberg.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    Did folks already link to Catherine Rampell’s column earlier today? If not (or if some want to read it again) here it is: The Real Hoax About The Border Crisis

    Maybe she should have just called it “An Unending Stream of Lies from Trumpov & Co About the Border Crisis”, but that’s just me

    It’s all a hoax. A great big hoax.

    Not the family separations, the babies alone in cages, the drugged immigrant children, the stolen toddlers too traumatized to speak, the wailing children whom Ann Coulter slanders as “child actors.”

    Sadly, those cruelties are all too real.

    The hoax is the premise that President Trump’s administration has invented to rationalize such crimes against humanity: his narrative that America has been “ infest[ed]” with hordes of crime-committing, culture-diluting, job-stealing, tax-shirking, benefits-draining “aliens.”

    No part of that description is remotely true. Yet the Trump administration seems to have successfully shifted the national dialogue away from “Do we have a border immigration problem?” to “What’s the right way to fix our border immigration problem?”

    Truly, it’s bizarre. Unauthorized border crossings have been falling over time. In fact, apprehensions of unauthorized immigrants along the Southwest border last fiscal year declined to about 300,000, the lowest level since 1971, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They’ve risen in recent months, though year-to-date they’re still below historical levels.

    More at the link…

  11. 11.

    jl

    Scary thing is that we see stages 4 through 8 already.
    What has saved us is that the Trumpsters are very bad, incapable really, of step 5 and 7.
    US system provides institutional pushback against step 2, but ICE thuggery is worrisome, its reach is growing.
    And, so far, looks like 70 to 80 percent of the population has not been swayed by step 4.

    Still, scary to think how far we’ve come down that evil road.

  13. 13.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So, turn it back on the Trumpsters – “Oh those Angel families are just actors Trump hired, you know how those Hollywood types like Trump are. They don’t even know what reality begins and their acting ends, you know?”,

  14. 14.

    jl

    @Jeffro: Thanks for the link. Good for WaPo as far as it goes. But that kind of article should be published in the news section. Why not? The WaPo, NYT, and other news organizations publish all sorts of false corporate BS propaganda to destroy social insurance all the time in the news section.
    Why not news in the news section?
    I don’t understand, what gives? (/snark)

  18. 18.

    jl

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Goldstein will be cast as Goldstein. The anti-Semites in the Trumpsters know they just can’t quite go there yet. Who, really is sending all these inferior races to infest and degrade us? At some point, we will be informed,no doubt.

  19. 19.

    efgoldman

    @debbie:

    I don’t see why he can’t be charged as an accesory to a crime.

    That comes around to “can a sitting president be charged in a criminal investigation, without impeachment”.
    His incompetent lawyers (he has no competent ones) will be fighting that after he’s gone.

  21. 21.

    schrodingers_cat

    @jl: Well the anti-immigrant hate sewer is already there. They blame the “Jews” for the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and also other civil rights legislation. The Orange One is the creature of that swamp, he embodies all its prejudices and uses the same lies.

  22. 22.

    GregB

    It appears that plans for internment camps at military bases that hold up to 120,000 across three states are being planned.

    The Hill reporting.

    A swim through the fever swamps has revealed a dramatic uptic in openly eliminationist posts.

    We are in a real existential danger zone.

  24. 24.

    efgoldman

    @germy:

    He displayed remarkable sensitivity at the Angels rally:

    His ear is so dependably tin that they could mine it for thousands of cans of beans

  27. 27.

    efgoldman

    @debbie:

    Charge him anyway.

    Not something that Mueller, or any good prosecutor, would do. He will not file a charge he might or might not ever get in front of a jury.

  28. 28.

    Felanius Kootea

    If only Trump’s base would fully understand that they are just being used. But their need to hate is more important than anything else and he has given them multiple targets. When the Democrats win, what can they do to address the issue of right wing propaganda networks like Fox and Sinclair? They are the ones gleefully carrying out step 6.

    Meanwhile, Nicki Haley goes on a rant against the UN: ‘It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America’

    In May, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston released a report saying the United States has the highest rates of youth poverty, infant mortality, incarceration, income inequality and obesity among all countries in the developed world, as well as 40 million people living in poverty. Alston accused President Trump and the Republican Congress of deepening poverty and inequality in the country, citing the Republican tax law passed last fall.

  29. 29.

    dmsilev

    @germy:

    He displayed remarkable sensitivity at the Angels rally:

    Please let’s not call it that.

    The accurate term, since someone already brought up Orwell, is 2 Minute Hate, but “Trump Racism Rally” will do.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    @schrodingers_cat: He said something a day or two ago along the lines of “I don’t know anything about that. I’ve been working on other things.”.

    That’s …not encouraging.

  32. 32.

    RepubAnon

    Perhaps a counter-rally of all the folks killed by mass shooters?

    Also, a question for these people: Would it lessen your pain and grief if your relative was killed by a US citizen?

    Or “Why do you let a racist exploit your loss for political gain?”

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    @Felanius Kootea: Nikki doesn’t need to worry. There are plenty of other forces in American life who will make sure that the word never gets out about the poverty, ill health, lesser education, and related issues that we have to deal with here in the good ol’ USA that our friends in other Western democracies don’t.

  34. 34.

    jl

    @GregB: “47,000 people at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in California”
    That will not go down well around here. Local activists already talking about how to counter it.

  35. 35.

    Hoodie

    @Jeffro: I was discussing this with a friend yesterday. There is no border security problem. We are an enormous country and this is a relative drop in the bucket. Trump is desperate to distract from the Mueller investigation, and he turned to this after the Korean thing turned out to be a nothingburger. That he would victimize children for a distraction is monstrous.

  38. 38.

    James Powell

    Trump has been doing this since the campaign, and it’s always been slanderous and hateful.

    And the press/media have always been legitimizing and amplifying his claims. It’s one of the reasons that the great mass of white Americans believe so many things about immigrants that are not true.

  39. 39.

    jl

    @James Powell: Which is why, every single time, we hear media shrinking from their duty to report the truth, and whenever they don’t put news squarely and explicitly in the context of the Trumpster Big Lies being Big Lies, we need to contact them and complain.

    And at some point, organize boycotts if they in any way, even implicitly, go along with the Big Lie.

  40. 40.

    scav

    @RepubAnon: Well, stands to NRA / GOP reason: If your school-child is killed by an American mass shooter, you’re no Angel family. That death is an honor to freeeedum.

    (NRA don’t want nobody poaching on their fenced reserve of captive targets.)

  41. 41.

    efgoldman

    @Felanius Kootea:

    If only Trump’s base would fully understand that they are just being used

    If only water is wet.
    They wouldn’t be the base, they’d be someone else.
    Or they know it, deep down, and don’t give a flying fuck
    Hate is a great binding force.

  42. 42.

    MagdaInBlack

    Let us consider the progression of Eliminationist Rhetoric:
    Thugs/Criminals>
    Animals>
    Cages>
    Infestation>
    Internment Camps
    …………….

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    @Hoodie: Well…I agree that it is a distraction, but he isn’t doing it *just* to distract here. It really is one of his signature issues…I hesitate to call it a ‘core value’ or ‘principle’, but that’s really what it is. Unabashed racism and xenophobia. It’s a major rallying point and bonding point for him and his base, and it’s not fake, unlike his support for evangelical Christianity.

  44. 44.

    Immanentize

    Of course OT means open thread. I have a chance to take my son to Scotland for a party — long story. I was NOT going to go but my nearly-impotent anger at all that is happening has forced me into a good hard efgoldman. So, off we go to see another way of life.

    We will be in Edinburgh next weekend, then we have five days to noodle about. any recommendations?

    fuck ’em

  45. 45.

    jl

    @James Powell: Not sure that the ‘great mass’ of white believe much of the Trump Big Lie, otherwise would not have almost 90 percent opposing the Trumpster baby concentration camps. But if we allow, it, the country will get to that dangerous place where they will approve of them.

  48. 48.

    terraformer

    This is all scary as hell. Any student of history can see the parallels between what’s been going on and some of our species’ darkest hours. But we’re dealing with about 27% of the population that isn’t receptive to arguments of fact and reason, so here we are.

    At lot is riding on what happens in November. And I mean a lot, like whether we’re staying here or getting the hell out. Fuck I hate having to write that.

  49. 49.

    TenguPhule

    @GregB:

    A swim through the fever swamps has revealed a dramatic uptic in openly eliminationist posts.

    We are in a real existential danger zone.

    But I have been assured, on this very blog, that such concerns are needless apocalyptic doom pron. Or something. //

  50. 50.

    ruemara

    @wjs: Stop whining to Mueller.

    Angel Families. Motherfucker. Genuinely, we only have this elections to protect our elections and win every race we can. If we don’t, Betty, the genocide that’s gone on in PR will look like a drop in a bloody bucket. Barring that, learn how to shoot. Don’t think I’m kidding.

  51. 51.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    I have been assured, on this very blog, that such concerns are needless apocalyptic

    Comments of keyboard kommandos are no more credible than you are.
    As you well know, any shithead can post any bullshit in a comment section.
    Stop fucking cowering.

  53. 53.

    lamh36

    Mark my words, Chump & is rhetoric of demonizing SOUTH AMERICAN immigrants (notice he doesn’t mention all the whiter immigrant countries) WILL get someone killed. At this point the question is WHEN not IF.

    And any bloodshed will be on the hands of CHUMP & the GOP & their voters.

  54. 54.

    HeleninEire

    I am, like all of you, having such a hard time with this. All the other crap that he pulled was bad, but those babies. I just can’t. I want to freeze it out. Stop reading the news. But that would make me complicit. I need to know what is going on. But I feel so helpless. Those babies. Those babies.

  57. 57.

    TenguPhule

    @Hoodie:

    That he would victimize children for a distraction is monstrous.

    Worse. This isn’t a distraction. This is a regular Trump policy that simply had the misfortune to have video recorded and released to the press. This is what they are. All of the time.

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    The White House staged this event solely so Trump could exploit the grief of the people on that stage to foment fear and hatred against an entire class of people whose overall crime rate is lower than that of native-born U.S. citizens.

    It might be helpful if a graphic chart showing this could be found. It could be posted up on Twitter, Facebook, etc, by folks. The Dems should use it, push it to the media, etc.

    The Angel Families thing is classic Trump and also rips off military families. He is a shameless piece of work.

  59. 59.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    Stop fucking cowering.

    The only reason most of my family avoided the last set of internment camps was because they were deemed an essential workforce without which the State of Hawaii would not be able to function.

    So with all due respect. BACK OFF.

  60. 60.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah: I owe you a bit of an apology. I didn’t exactly defend Melania, but I was conflicted regarding where she was on the victim/perpetrator spectrum. No more after yesterday. I have joined Team RikyRAH! on this issue.

  61. 61.

    Cacti

    This was a test by the fascists to see if the public was ready to accept child abduction of Hispanic children as national policy.

    The answer was, no. So it’s back to work on conditioning us for it.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    The most important thing to understand about the Russia scandal is that it perfectly fits a clear pattern of behavior. What Vladimir Putin is accused of doing to help Donald Trump win the presidency is essentially identical to what he is either accused of or proven to have done to help many other right-wing candidates in many other countries. As the plot in the United States is slowly exposed, a remarkably similar one in the United Kingdom is quickly surfacing.
    Months before the United States narrowly elected Trump, the United Kingdom narrowly elected to withdraw from the European Union. Both votes advanced Russian foreign policy goals — in the latter case, by splitting up the Western alliance. (Trump has energetically pursued this strategy, too.) Russia employed many of the same tools to influence both elections. It deployed social-media bots and trolls to spread its message. It recruited friendly candidates who gave voice to previously marginal Russophile positions. And, as the newly surfaced evidence suggests, it indirectly financed the campaign.

  63. 63.

    TenguPhule

    German automotive stocks fell after Donald Trump threatened to impose a 20 percent tariff on all European car imports, escalating his demand for concessions aimed at lowering the U.S. trade deficit.

    Shares of Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW AG fell in Frankfurt after Trump’s latest broadside, insisting European manufacturers “build them here!” General Motors Co. and other U.S. automakers pared earlier gains, on concern they too would get caught up in rising global tariffs.

    “Based on the Tariffs and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S. and it great companies and workers by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!” Trump said in a tweet today.

    Trump’s tariff tweet sends Daimler, BMW shares careening

  64. 64.

    Immanentize

    @TenguPhule: So where does your odd love of eliminationist rhetoric come from? And your even odder support of Benjamin Netanyahu who many say is a racist eliminationist himself? So confusing!

    It really is like you are several people in conflict using one name. E Pluribus Phule.

  66. 66.

    jl

    @lamh36: Did the miserable fascist and racist name any Muslim countries?
    A number of Sikhs have already been killed by butt ignorant vigilantes because of the Trump (and GOP) Muslim scare campaign.

    One real hope is that this is one really really super lazy rich white man. Throw some blocks up in his path and he’ll wander off for a while until Miller or his ilk force him to keep plugging away at committing some real mass quantities of human rights crimes.

    There’s always Canada to bash.

    The Muslim ban was also a human rights violation. DACA was going to be a human rights violation. Both got substantially slowed by determined opposition, and we can do the same with this evil BS.

    Edit: it is exhausting and discouraging. Trump will never ever stop at this. Remember he wanted the Central Park kids locked up for life long after it was proven indisputably that they were completely innocent. Racism, Big Lies, and swindles are part of the true inner core of Trump that will never change.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    Unexpected? (emphasis added)

    The Department of Homeland Security would not be able to use two big federal grant programs to pay for arming teachers, thanks to a provision tucked into House legislation that quietly passed this week.

    The measure blocks the funds from being spent to provide anyone with a gun or train them to use one.
    [snip]
    …The National Rifle Association, which promotes gun rights and safety, did not respond to a request for comment.
    [snip]
    The federal programs, which give funds to states and localities for counter-terrorism efforts, provided more than $900 million worth of grants this fiscal year.

    No one spoke against the new provision, part of a bill on vehicular counter-terrorism efforts. It passed by voice vote. Now it’s headed to the Senate. Source

  71. 71.

    Immanentize

    I Believe In, by the Buzzcocks

    I believe in the worker’s revolution and
    I believe in the final solution….

    Funny story about this, which is one of the Buzzcock’s masterpieces IMHO — I was living in Porter Square, Cambridge, with a classmate in 1980 — his now-wife was in Africa working on a study of traditional healing methods (so many stories about that)…. When I was living with my friend, we listened to this song a LOT. When his partner returned from a year immersed in traditional cultures, he was so excited to play it for her — needless to say, she found our musical choices, well, disorienting. Welcome back to the land of Star Market!

  72. 72.

    tobie

    The White House staged this event

    but CBS wrote the chyron. Once again our media shows itself incapable of reporting on Trump’s propaganda campaigns as propaganda campaign. That’s why a majority of Americans think he actually accomplished something at the Singapore summit. A more appropriate chyron would have been: “Trump uses the families of murder victims as props for his speech.”

  73. 73.

    JPL

    @jl: You know he’ll be having an event for those killed by white supremacists, but they’ll title
    it I don’t care do u.

  76. 76.

    jl

    @NotMax: GOPers in Congress and NRA knew that was an idiot idea. And they don’t want repeated news of mistaken and inept shootings in schools from teachers’ and janitors’ guns infesting the news in the run up to the midterms.

    Of course, Trump, idiot, still loves the idea.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    @jl

    Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but the “No one spoke against the new provision” signals to me that the Rs are running scared. Very scared.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    @JPL: Trying to do something!!!

    I had a conference call with some lawyers in Texas who run criminal defense legal education clinics in Texas. I am reigniting my damn Texas Bar membership. We are going to get something going with law students. It is certain to be half-assed, but it is something…. I am just so upset by this. It is a sin against charity to make me feel so angry and violent against people in power. But that is the problem with lawless behavior — it breeds a lawless reaction which seems like the only probable effective response. And of course such a response will be the excuse for further lawless behavior.

    God, I hate hating.

  81. 81.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:

    Russia employed many of the same tools to influence both elections. It deployed social-media bots and trolls to spread its message.

    Seems like a good time to post this. From Sen. James Lankford:

    Trolls and bots are still active on Twitter trying to deceive us. They’re even using the current family separation & immigration debate to sow discord among Americans. It is important for social media companies to expose it so everyone knows what is fake. https://t.co/z28Wjmjhop— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) June 20, 2018

    Sen. Mark Warner highlighted it by quoting it and posting this:

    More people should be paying attention to this. https://t.co/YnyGwU5not— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) June 20, 2018

    This is bipartisan support for this issue. Both men are on the Senate Intelligence community. This is a coordinated statement and we should pay attention to what they’re saying.

    Russia is very good at identifying divisions and pushing make them bigger. The family separation issue is a real issue. It’s appalling. But it’s also serving as a useful tool for Russia to divide us more. We fight with people (or bots and trolls) online and end up exhausted and disheartened. Then we don’t have the energy to fight when we need to. That’s playing into their hands.

    We must keep our eyes what’s important. If you’re exhausted take a break and regroup and come back to fight again. Find something constructive to do. Volunteer for a local campaign. Work on voters’ rights. Letting the news exhaust you too much over and over again what Russia (and China) want to happen. Don’t get sucked into it. Focus on the good things that are happening (Paul Manafort is still in jail! The Parkland kids have the NRA’s number!) and keep fighting.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    If your school-child is killed by an American mass shooter, you’re no Angel family. That death is an honor to freeeedum.

    Sadly, this. If your child is murdered by a native-born American and you speak out, you’re a “crisis actor” who’s faking your grief.

    The Parkland kids aren’t part of “angel families” because their loved ones were murdered by a white man, so they must have deserved to die. ?

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: See the tweet embedded in the original post from CBS News, which uses the term. I also called out Politico today and an MSM reporter yesterday on Twitter for using it (a deplorables magnet, as it turns out — block party!). If you do a search for “Angel Families,” “Angel mom” and “Angel dad,” you’ll get a distressingly large amount of non-Fox returns. Most are just repeating what the White House is calling the folks Trump is exploiting, but that’s dangerous, IMO. It normalizes it. We should pressure them to do better.

  85. 85.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @burnspbesq:

    They’re moving on to “1984.” It will be interesting to see who Trump casts as Goldberg

    1984 2.0
    “You want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping it’s own dick – forever”

    “The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Fortress America was at war with Canada. Fortress America had always been at war with Canada.”

    “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes BORING, and I am not listening any more until the pretty blonde lady start talking, If that is granted, all else follows.”

    And the name Golberg will be replaced with Hillary.

  86. 86.

    patrick II

    This is a dumb question, but that generally doesn’t stop me. Can Trump, Kelly, et al be held criminally liable for the abduction/kidnapping of children? It appears they did not have any intent to return children to their parent(s) after they were taken, and has been noted, caused incredible harm. If this were done except as a matter of government agency, there would be long, long prison sentences. I understand that acting in governmental capacity grants immunity, but when those actions are clearly against both national and international law, is there some line that can be crossed? Can Trump really kill someone on 5th avenue and pay no price?

  87. 87.

    jl

    @NotMax: Maybe, but also I think that most of them are smart enough to know a bunch of news stories about pointless tragedies, near misses and scary BS from the policy would be bad right before the midterms. I think the NRA must have told their flunkies the Freedom Caucus fools to stand down and they obeyed.

  88. 88.

    lamh36

    I’ve been offline all day.

    Have we heard or seen anymore about where the girls are?

  89. 89.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    @HeleninEire: I know. It’s horrifying. I can’t let people defend it around me — this isn’t like tax cuts where a right-winger says something stupid and I roll my eyes and stay silent just to keep the peace. I fight every single person I run across who defends this. It’s exhausting, but I can’t not. I may not save a kid from any trauma, but at least I’ll ruin five minutes of some asshole’s day.

    I read a saying somewhere: if you have one Nazi at a table with 10 other people, you have 11 Nazis. I have no use for that first Nazi, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be one of the other 10.

  91. 91.

    jl

    @patrick II: Looks like they have already transported some across state lines to California. Would be interesting to find out. I think some state officials in CA would be interested in finding out.

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    Vote against the GOP this November

    Amid the carnage of Republican misrule in Washington, there is this glimmer of good news: The family-shredding policy along the southern border, the most telegenic recent example of misrule, clarified something. Occurring less than 140 days before elections that can reshape Congress, the policy has given independents and temperate Republicans — these are probably expanding and contracting cohorts, respectively — fresh if redundant evidence for the principle by which they should vote.

    The principle: The congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced. So substantially that their remnants, reduced to minorities, will be stripped of the Constitution’s Article I powers that they have been too invertebrate to use against the current wielder of Article II powers. They will then have leisure time to wonder why they worked so hard to achieve membership in a legislature whose unexercised muscles have atrophied because of people like them.

    …. Ryan and many other Republicans have become the president’s poodles, not because James Madison’s system has failed but because today’s abject careerists have failed to be worthy of it.

    It’s George Will. WaPost link.

    He calls the Democrats deplorables and “supine,” but when you’ve lost George Will to this extent …

  94. 94.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Immanentize: Melania was a Birther. She also claimed that her hubby’s “grab them by the p*ssy” talk was just boys being boys. She lied about writing the speech she plagiarized from Mrs. Obama. She was always a horrible human being. Nothing changed yesterday.

  95. 95.

    Yarrow

    @satby: Are you going to rent a car or just plan to stay fairly near Edinburgh? Scotland’s not that big, so if you drive you could go to Loch Ness (always kind of fun to say you’ve been). It’s fun just to drive around and explore, so long as you feel comfortable just kind of winging it. The countryside is gorgeous.

  97. 97.

    jl

    @Elizabelle: So George Will, mendacious and meretricious GOP pundit, admits that Trump = GOP? Nice. Look forward to seeing bits of that column used in some ads before the midterms.

  99. 99.

    Mandalay

    How to democratically screw Sanders and Trump:

    Donald Trump made headlines throughout the 2016 campaign for his refusal to release his tax returns to the public. Now, if he doesn’t comply to disclose that information in the lead-up to the 2020 election, he could find his name stripped from the ballot in some states.

    The Rhode Island Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would require all presidential candidates to make their tax returns from the past five years available for voters to see, or risk being left out at the polls. Lawmakers approved of the bill overwhelmingly, 34 to 3. The legislation will now move on to the statehouse for a vote.

    I like that approach a lot, but it seems far too good to be true; what is the flaw in their cunning plan?

  100. 100.

    jl

    @Patricia Kayden: There are George Will clones in George Will smarty-pants smug irascible old white man costumes, bow-tie and smart glasses, ready to run in November, no doubt.

  102. 102.

    mozzerb

    @Mary G:

    After World War II, the average man and woman in the street had seen the cost of global conflict, could still taste the menace of fascism, and gradually saw the benefits of integration, global cooperation and the stability it brought. We took all that for granted. As we are now discovering, we must not make that error again.

    Yes. Basically, it took two world wars and a Great Depression to slap enough sense into the survivors that they tried to do something about it. Unfortunately, the generations that followed didn’t listen to their parents and grandparents.

    As the saying goes, “the main thing we learn from history is that nobody learns anything from history”. Let’s hope that’s too cynical.

  103. 103.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Immanentize: Here ya go

    A) First thing each morning purchase a day bus pass, they cost 4 pounds and mean you can get on and off any bus in the city for 24 hours. B) Wear really comfortable shoes, Edinburgh is a walking friendly city but it is also a walking intense city, so be prepared. C) Take advantage of the free stuff, Edinburgh can be expensive to visit the “paid” attractions but there are lots of things you can do for free, St. Giles Cathedral (on the Royal Mile) is free to go in (they ask for a small donation) and is dedicated to the Saint who saved his pet deer from an arrow (will be a favourite of Balloon Juicers I am sure). There are two indoor markets that are also free to enter, one in an old church at the bottom of the Royal Mile and one at the edge of the Castle Esplanade dedicated to tartan which has a working tartan mill inside it, very interesting. Check out the times of the sunset and make sure to be by the Waverly station exit closest to the Scott Memorial at sunset because that is the best place to get a great shot of the sun setting over the castle. Arthur’s Seat is also free and gives you great views over Hollyrood (where Mary Queen of Scots murdered her husband). Also hop on a bus on Princes Street and go and see the Royal Yacht, it costs to get on the yacht but there is no charge to look at it from the attached shopping center. D) Don’t go to the high end restaurants, eat in pubs outside of the center, they are cheap, friendly and even the lowliest of ones serve great food and for the Scotch enthusiasts they serve about 27 million different varieties. E) Get lost (no I am not kidding) the great thing about Edinburgh is you can hop on a bus, go to all sorts of weird places and eventually get on another bus and end up back on Princes Street, just about every bus goes to Princes Street (the middle of everything), the bus drivers are absolute gems and will put you right even if you have no idea where you are going. Have fun!

    Its from the Russiagate Michael Cohen thread. You should go and look at it because a commenter called Robert Sneddon (IIR) posted some stuff and he lives in Edinburgh, so he clarified some of my stuff about the bus service and provided some really useful information.

  105. 105.

    Mandalay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    But he still has to deride Democrats though. Just can’t help himself.

    Right. Will’s duplicity reminds me of those who deplore the tragedy of children being separated from their parents, but then go out their way to blame Democrats or Congress for it instead of Trump.

  106. 106.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @patrick II:

    Can Trump really kill someone on 5th avenue and pay no price?

    Literally, no, I suspect New Yorkers find Trump so contemptuous they would mob him if he did that.

    Theoritically, I think we’re going to find out to be honest. Trump is clearly losing it mentally into a second childhood and like a kid, seeing how much damage he can do before someone stops him. Once the thrill of hurting mothers is off Trump’s going to want to raise the stakes in his sick little mind game.

  108. 108.

    B.B.A.

    @Mandalay: The flaw is it’s Rhode Island, a tiny ass-state where even the Republicans are Democrats. Trump would gladly give up a 2% chance to win 4 electoral votes in order to keep his mere hundred-millionairedom under wraps.

  109. 109.

    JPL

    This is not normal
    Trump autographed photos of deceased crime victims for White House ‘Angel Families’ event

  112. 112.

    Mary G

    @Immanentize: Hanging out with my two teens has been saving my sanity. We initially agreed to two hours on M-W-F, which he considered sooo onerous. I’ve taken them places I wanted to go and they enjoy it. Today it was just errands like dropping books off at the thrift shop, banking, groceries, to Staples for protest poster makings, etc. I started off with “do you know how to pump gas?” and they were OMG we’re not old enough to drive! We can’t do that! I said, oh, you’re smart and there’s no age limit at the pump and I will talk you through it from the car. So I did and when I came out of the bank later they had run into a couple of friends and were “we know how to pump gas now!” “Woah!” They are also psyched that the bare root strawberries we planted last week are sprouting leaves.

    We got home after two and a half hours, and I was OK, see you Wednesday and they were kind of crestfallen that we weren’t making the posters, after making faces at having to go to a protest next Saturday.

  117. 117.

    Immanentize

    @Mary G: This is what I crave. The Immp (or as rikyrah calls him, little Imma) is a bit of an introvert teenager in full “I’m a man!” flower.. He still loves it when I make him tea, though.

  118. 118.

    lgerard

    @Mandalay:

    I like that approach a lot, but it seems far too good to be true; what is the flaw in their cunning plan?

    The flaw is that the Constitution established the qualifications for the office of President and did not mention tax returns

  119. 119.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Brachiator:

    To his credit, Chuck Todd ran just such a graphic on his show tonight: a simple bar chart showing that the crime rate for native-born Americans is much higher than that for illegal immigrants and very much higher than that for legal immigrants.

  121. 121.

    efgoldman

    @Elizabelle:

    He calls the Democrats deplorables and “supine,” but when you’ve lost George Will to this extent …

    So he’s been right twice in his life – now, and when he called on Tricksie to leave.
    Hell of an average, Georgie.
    Go fuck yourself.

  122. 122.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/age-trump-evangelicals-back-self-styled-top-u-112721399.html

    “People want to know how an evangelical can support a self-proclaimed pimp,” Fuentes said in an interview at his home in Pahrump, an unincorporated town of 36,000 people that is the largest community in the sprawling, rural district where Hof is favored to win in November’s general election.

    He said the reason was simple. “We have politicians, they might speak good words, not sleep with prostitutes, be a good neighbor. But by their decisions, they have evil in their heart. Dennis Hof is not like that.”ml

    Evangelicals – people dead on the inside worshiping a dead god.

  123. 123.

    Mandalay

    @tobie:

    Once again our media shows itself incapable of reporting on Trump’s propaganda campaigns as propaganda campaign.

    I’m with you. Linguist George Lakoff has an elegant and simple solution for better reporting on Trump’s shenanigans and lies:

    “Start with the truth that he’s trying to hide. You make that clear, and then you point out that the president is trying to hide this by lying … say a little bit about what the lie is. And go back to the TRUTH.”…

    But the press is trained to repeat what public figures say. They are doing what they were taught to do in journalism school.

    So as a simple example, instead of reporting “Trump said X on Twitter”, report “Y is true, but Trump falsely stated X on Twitter. His statement was false because Y is true”.

    And frame the story as being about the falsity of a tweet from the president, rather than just giving an uncritical announcement that the president sent a tweet stating X.

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Elizabelle: It’s George Will. WaPost link.

    He calls the Democrats deplorables and “supine,” but when you’ve lost George Will to this extent …

    George Will has been reading Glenn Greenwald and listening to The Young Turks? Maybe a rose-tweeting young lady has captured his fancy, and his second wife will soon toss his clothes out on the front lawn….

  125. 125.

    Chyron HR

    I know the direction the country is going seems disturbing, but please try to keep in mind that Hillary would have only raised the national minimum wage to $12/hour.

  126. 126.

    Mnemosyne

    @Patricia Kayden:

    As I said on Facebook today, Melania is not at the top of my shit list because there are other people in this administration who have more power and have done worse things, but she’s definitely on that list.

  127. 127.

    Dorothy Winsor

    @Immanentize: If you have time, go to the Culloden battlefield. It’s where the clans fought their last battle against the British who were determined to wipe the clan system out. There’s a great immersive video showing the battle, plus the field itself with markers everywhere telling you who fell where.

  129. 129.

    hitchhiker

    Here’s how I think we (sane Americans) should respond to this messaging, in one loud voice:

    IT’S SAD THAT WE DON’T HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO CAN DO MORE THAN ONE THING AT A TIME.

    We used to have administrations who could tell the difference between criminals and toddlers, and come up with ways to address issues that are difficult. Now we’re stuck with someone who thinks his job is to bluster and do nothing.

  130. 130.

    burnspbesq

    There is a great record store on the Mound in Edinburgh: Coda Music, 12 Bank St. I get most of my Irish and Scottish CDs from there.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    they were kind of crestfallen that we weren’t making the posters, after making faces at having to go to a protest next Saturday.

    They’re teenagers. They’re required to make faces at anything they suspect is “uncool” but secretly want to do.

  133. 133.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Mandalay: I wonder about if these laws (which I support) are constitutional. After all, the Constitution spells out the minimum qualifications of the President, like being 35 years of age, born in this country, etc. (sadly they did not also say “and not a fucking idiot racist moron douchebag”). Would these state laws impose additional qualifications? I would like to most of the larger states like New York and California pass these laws, which would put the issue of tax returns in the news even if the laws are challenged by some future candidate.

  135. 135.

    jl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I doubt it. However, i think it important since since, IMHO, these celeb GOP pundits., Will, Brooks, etc. are under orders from their paymasters, and also have to keep their audiences in order to command their pay. So one or the other, or both, are telling them that extreme measures are required right now. Even if it means taking very heavy short term loses. If it’s their bosses, corporate deep pockets and a long time horizon can see beyond the next couple of election cycles.

  136. 136.

    Mandalay

    @B.B.A.:

    The flaw is it’s Rhode Island, a tiny ass-state

    Right, but I was asking on the assumption that other states could also adopt the same approach. Sadly, it seems that lgerard (post #118) has identified a fatal flaw with their cunning stunt:

    The flaw is that the Constitution established the qualifications for the office of President and did not mention tax returns

  137. 137.

    Fleeting Expletive

    L. O’Donnell’s map showed states where journalists have found baby jails. Remarkably OK was not one of them. I bet Scott Pruitt has not failed to make the arrangements, from his EPA cone of silence, to get some of that sweet, sweet detention money. I hope someone can find out.

  140. 140.

    cosima

    @Immanentize: We live in the Cairngorms, a ways north of Edinburgh. You are welcome to ask a FP’er for my contact info, and I would be happy to help you with suggestions. If you plan to venture outside of Edinburgh you’ll need a realistic plan — it takes longer to travel here with all of the minor roads. The Falkirk Wheel & the Kelpies are a fab thing to see not so far from Edinburgh. Perth is a beautiful small city not completely overrun with tourists. Scone Palace is there. Glamis Castle. Will you have a car? So many variables associated with suggestions.

    I had written more before, but my response was eaten. Feel free to contact me.

  142. 142.

    arrieve

    @HeleninEire: Thanks, Helen — this is exactly how I feel. I am in a constant state of disbelief that things, which are already so bad, continue to get even worse. I want to shut it out, but I feel like I owe it to those poor children not to look away, to stay on top of it and try to figure out ways to help.

  144. 144.

    Mel

    @efgoldman:

    So glad that you are back! Hope you are feeling better.

    You are right- we need to push in new ways. We can push back on the media, especially local news broadcasts and newspapers, but it has to be en masse. If thirty people write letters to the editor or opinion letters, perhaps one will get published. If thirty people write letters, and all thirty sign each others’ letters, then it shows editorial staff and general readership that there is power behind the letters.

    Call or email individual reporters who “both sides” it, or who use pro-Trump language and spin. We need to get as many like-minded people as possible to also call and write them within the same 24 hour period of time. They WILL eventually respond to pressure and to the fear of reduced ratings or readership.

    There are far fewer crazies than there are of us. They are just so, so much louder. We have to start being as loud, as organized, and as persistent in order to force the media to shift away from propaganda and back to some semblance of actual journalism.

    Words and images are the most effective way to sway the masses. Take a look at propaganda slogans and images from any era – they push the narrative in ways that affect the conscious and the unconscious perceptions of the general public. That’s why we need to call out this “angel family” “criminal immigrant” etc. crap, asap. It’s psychological propaganda and conditioning, and it’s dangerous as can be.

    I saw a tweet earlier asking why Jared Kushners’s lies on his disclosure forms (a felony) are going completely unpunished, and yet children are being imprisoned for entering the country without proper documentation (a misdemeanor). We need to plaster these comparisons EVERYWHERE and say what the media won’t say, while we apply pressure to push them to do their damn jobs.

    It will take time, lots of people making consistent, repeated contact, and clear statements calling the lies exactly what they are, before they start paying attention. But they will, I hope, if we persist, because the ad dollars that come from high viewership and readership levels are a big part of their bottom line decision making.

  145. 145.

    zhena gogolia

    @lamh36:

    Unfortunately, as someone pointed out earlier, Tom Arnold has been predicting that he’s on the verge of taking Trump down since Nov. 7, 2016.

  146. 146.

    Mandalay

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I would like to most of the larger states like New York and California pass these laws, which would put the issue of tax returns in the news even if the laws are challenged by some future candidate.

    I thought that as well at first, but on reflection the Republicans would have a feeding frenzy with a “candidate suppression” argument if the law was successfully challenged. Put another way, if they are not on pretty solid legal ground then Democrats should drop the idea altogether, since the downside seems worse than the upside.

  148. 148.

    Mary G

    @Immanentize: I didn’t have kids and I was sick a lot so I didn’t do a lot with kids when I was young, so I was really nervous. At first they had their noses in their cell phones raising dinosaurs and I just let them. When I talked to them I tried to avoid lecturing and just answered questions they asked. He is really curious and gregarious, so the questions came faster and faster each time. I don’t lecture, either, much anyway. We went by their high school which is also my alma mater and they were saying how glad they were it’s summer and I told them, truthfully, that I hated that place when I was there too. College, though, now that is fun. Nobody tells you what to do, just what you need to know when you take midterms and finals. Nice subtle plug.

  149. 149.

    japa21

    @Mandalay: Not sure that is a legit rebuttal. IANAL or anything close to one, but there is a difference between qualifications to be President and qualifications to appear on a ballot. I am not sure how much control states have, but in terms of primaries there are a lot of power.

  151. 151.

    A Ghost To Most

    @terraformer:

    At lot is riding on what happens in November. And I mean a lot, like whether we’re staying here or getting the hell out. Fuck I hate having to write that.

    I am surprised and saddened at the number of people preparing to cut and run, rather than stand and fight.

  152. 152.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @Mandalay:

    IANAL, but don’t the states set the rules for ballot access?

    Even if he’s not on the ballot, his voters could still write him in.

    Those that can spell correctly, that is. ?

  153. 153.

    b

    @Immanentize: I love engineering marvels and would visit the Falkirk Wheel. It makes cools use of basic physics principles. Not sure what your interests are. I believe you can do a boat trip on the canal also.

  155. 155.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mandalay: @Mandalay: @Jerzy Russian: @lgerard: the Constitution (non-Skousen edition) establishes the requirements for being president, but not for getting on the ballot. States have lots of leeway on ballot access.

    NB: I’m a labor and employment lawyer. This is not my area of expertise.

  156. 156.

    Jerzy Russian

    @japa21:

    but there is a difference between qualifications to be President and qualifications to appear on a ballot

    Indeed. My legal training consists of watching Perry Mason and Matlock (this seems to make me more qualified than many of Trump’s lawyers), so I would be interested in hearing from experts on this.

  157. 157.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    Being an aunt is fun, even being an honorary one. My niece in FL texted me to say that she loved her graduation gift — I got her a fancy academic planner and a bunch of planner accessories. I told her that I had a hard time in college because I was very disorganized, so I wanted her to have the tools to do better than I did. ?

  158. 158.

    TenguPhule

    @Immanentize:

    And your even odder support of Benjamin Netanyahu who many say is a racist eliminationist himself?

    WTF? I am going to assume ignorance on your behalf. In no way, shape or form do I support or even like Netanyahu. He is one of Israel’s many current problems.

  159. 159.

    Argiope

    @Immanentize: We were in Edinburgh last month. My 15 year old says the Greyfriars Kirkyard was the coolest thing we did (the inspiration for Tom Riddle’s grave, in case Immp is a Potter fan). We all loved dinner at Aizle, a recommendation based on a post in On The Road. Hope you can unplug from our national shitshow for a little while while you travel, and rest up for the months ahead.

  161. 161.

    lgerard

    @Steve in the ATL:

    States have lots of leeway on ballot access.

    I think you will find that ballot access in Presidential races is actually given to the party, not the actual person running for the office.

    not an expert on this either

  164. 164.

    sgrAstar

    @GregB: couldn’t agree more. Here’s a clip from TIME about the Navy’s prison camp proposal:

    The memo also proposes a camp for as many as 47,000 people at former Naval Weapons Station Concord, near San Francisco; and another facility that could house as many as 47,000 people at Camp Pendleton, the Marines’ largest training facility located along the Southern California coast. The planning memo proposes further study of housing an undetermined number of migrants at the Marine Corps Air Station…

    This is astonishing. We have to be ready to push back as hard as we can.

  165. 165.

    TenguPhule

    @A Ghost To Most:

    Your expressed hatred of Palestinians led me to the same erroneous conclusion.

    I don’t hate them. I don’t sympathize with them either. And I despise the Israel bashing/”But those poor Palestinians have no choice but to brutally murder schoolchildren!” apologists.

  167. 167.

    Mel

    @Immanentize: If you have time, it’s well worth it to head to the North (perthshire, etc.) and then on to the Orkney Islands, especially if you have an interest in history and archaeology.

    There are some wonderful farmhouse B & Bs on working farms, and lots of incredible landscapes and historical sites to see (everything from Neolithic brochs to Pictish standing stones to the remains of Viking villages to some pretty remarkable listed estates and manors)

    My favorite day trip was hiking to the ruins of Castle Campbell. Beautiful highland landscape.

  168. 168.

    WereBear

    @JR: We may need an American Nuremberg (the trials, not the rallies)

    May? No. MUST.

    They’ve been getting away with blatant illegality since Nixon and it will only stop when we stop it.

  169. 169.

    bluefish

    Angel Families so I guess Devil Families. How about mob families? These folks aren’t playing and POTUS is as crazy as the day is long. I mean that literally — the guy is nuts. He’s a lot of other things too, none of them good, but top of the list crazy. And, meanwhile back at the ranch, some of these guys and gals have evidently been very busy planning all manner of Nazi concentration style maneuvers (minus a database of course, because oh well), expecting in their wild imaginings that that would be cool with the rest of us. So they’re super scary and super ridiculous in thinking we don’t see what we see, and then, thankfully, super super stupid. Plus, we’re super duper extra special outraged by this because The Hague would be good cuz clearly on purpose, including the jacket. I should speak for myself and apologize but not really. Of course at this point one has to insert the matter of the pesky 30-40 percent and their mighty mighty stupidpower but I’m sick of talking about them. Good to put them on the shelf for awhile as you struggle to remember what this country is supposed to be about. One thing for sure … We need to educate our children a whole lot better. That would be a good thing.

    The public outrage this week gives hope. And it’s important to try and not go mad. There’s always that.

    Thanks to Ted Lieu — that was great. The lady with the gavel is one for the ages. I had teachers like that when I was young. Then you get over it with, additional education. If you’re lucky & I was. We’ll get through this but it’s not a bad idea to keep reminding our reps and leaders and you know those people that we’re not stupid, not being fooled, not on board at these levels of cruelty and overall lunacy–or at all anymore–and that it’s just not going to fly. We’re not going to forget this episode, plus all the others!, and they should count on that … as of now. Enough folks do it, it can make all a diff. See John Lewis. It’s good to be fearless. It’s easier to get grass and that’s nice as a general proposition and I’d forgotten how much I liked early Joe Cocker and Traffic. Fuck these people. We just need to be vigilant all the time which is exhausting and act. Sorry so long. I’m getting older, am totally heartbroken, and talk too much. The shame of this week is overwhelming, isn’t it. And much much more to come.

  170. 170.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    I hadn’t heard the “Angel Family” before but this phenomenon/narrative is nothing new. Racist, xenophobes pulled that crap at every public event focused on Sanctuary City protections as early as Jan 2017. I’ve seen it myself at several Supervisor meetings, protests etc. here in LA

  172. 172.

    ktron

    @TenguPhule:

    There are reasons people buy non-american built cars. MangoPOTUS45 thinks he’s a business man, he’d better hope the world doesn’t wake up to his mindless manipulation of neo-liberal tropes.

    Daimler, Mercedes, BMW, should pro-actively raise their prices and re-buy their own shares.

    No one who would normally buy a Mercedes or BMW is going to turn around and buy a Caddy instead – they’ll cough up the extra bucks.

    The rest of the world doesn’t have to dumb down to his level

  174. 174.

    Brickley Paiste

    @jl:
    How is that even possible? Wasn’t the CNWS transferred to Concord to be parks/housing?

    I’ve seen stories in the past few years about Lennar and other big developers submitting proposals, public meetings, etc.

  175. 175.

    Teddys Person

    @Patricia Kayden: IIRC, she also tried to finds ways to monetize her position as First Lady during the transition, although it was shut down pretty quickly.

  176. 176.

    Anonymous patient

    @ruemara:

    Barring that, learn how to shoot. Don’t think I’m kidding.

    Have always been glad I know how to shoot accurately. Doubly so lately. I’m old, I won’t go alone.

    Everyone posting here is on a list somewhere. Everyone posting here needs training with a handgun, to buy one, preferably at a gun show, and to practice with their chosen weapon.

  178. 178.

    J R in WV

    @patrick II:

    Can Trump, Kelly, et al be held criminally liable for the abduction/kidnapping of children? It appears they did not have any intent to return children to their parent(s) after they were taken, and has been noted, caused incredible harm.

    I agree with you 100%. Trump and everyone between him and the ICE agents, the staff at the children concentration camps, all of them are guilty of the most egregious child abuse, kidnapping, and multiple crimes against humanity.

    They should be prosecuted by every state in which the children are captured, moved through, held prisoner against their will, against their parents will. Indictments should be sought and handed up to judges, and US Marshals should be sent to round up all those offenders for trial.

  182. 182.

    Bonnie

    It is 2018. The immigrants at the southern border are “the Jews”. American is Germany; and Americans are the Nazis. They are engaging in ethnic cleansing and genocide of the immigrants at the southern border. Every supporter of Trump is a Nazi–look in the mirror so you will know what a Nazi looks like.

  183. 183.

    Tehanu

    @Immanentize: Pitlochry, north of Perth; lots of great bed-and-breakfasts, small hotels, gorgeous scenery. Or the West — Argyll, Oban, Fort William, Glencoe! From Ft. William up the Great Glen, Urquhart Castle, then Culloden. Scotland in summer — I’m so envious!

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