Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "We need to rebuild our immigration system from top to bottom, starting by replacing ICE with something that reflects our morality" https://t.co/H4335KtXj1 pic.twitter.com/0hX3DeJgjy
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 30, 2018
If you didn’t get a chance to read Balloon Juice over the weekend, you will want to go back and be inspired by Cheryl’s amazing job collating the pics from so many of your fellow Daydream Believers: start here, then here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
And, of course, many thanks and kudos to you who marched, whether or not you sent photos!
I’m not seeing nationwide crowd estimates yet, but the turnout — given the short notice, and for much of the country the heat of the day — seems to have been a major surprise to our media “betters”. Lisa Ryan, at NYMag‘s ladyblog The Cut, has an excellent aggregation of “The Most Powerful Scenes From the Families Belong Together Protests”.
And the Los Angeles Times — no surprise — has the best summary I’ve seen so far:
Galvanized by the images and voices of migrant children separated from their parents by President Trump’s immigration policies, hundreds of thousands took to the streets Saturday in major cities and small towns across America to express outrage that they hope will carry over into the fall election.
From coast to coast, several hundred rallies dubbed Families Belong Together ranged from the large and boisterous — thousands clogging the Brooklyn Bridge in New York — to more modest ones, such as a protest that drew about 200 people to a street corner in West Hartford, Conn.
In Los Angeles, tens of thousands assembled in front of City Hall just before noon in a star- and politician-studded rally that centered on messages of humanity and empathy transcending borders. Organizers said they were not only protesting the separation of families but also Trump policies “criminalizing” migrants and leaving in limbo the fate of those protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shielded from deportation young immigrants brought here illegally when they were children…
Many marchers were veterans of protests against other Trump administration policies, including the Women’s March and the March for Science, but some were newly energized to speak up. For Debbie Greenspan, a protest Saturday in Hollywood, Fla., was the first demonstration she ever attended.
“I just can’t bear babies being taken from their parents or even putting the whole family in jail,” Greenspan said. “I mean, what is wrong with these people? It’s beyond comprehension.”…
The midterm elections were on the minds of protesters all over the country. In Dallas, marchers carried signs reading, “November is coming.” In Denver, protesters at the state Capitol chanted: “Vote them out! Vote them out!”…
Marching in Chicago was Margo Chavez-Easley, who immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala with her mother when she was 9.
“To be an immigrant and an American, I feel a mix of pride and shame,” Chavez-Easley said. “… That’s a child’s biggest fear, is to lose their mom and dad.”
Protesting side by side in Denver were Henny Pattirane, 26, an immigrant from Indonesia, and her friend Joseline Umulisa, also 26, an immigrant from Rwanda.
Umulisa said she was moved to tears when she thought about what some immigrants had been through.
“The only reason you were born here is because you were lucky,” she said. “I came out today because I had to do something, and it beats crying in your bed.”
Funny thing, though…
It's hard to get accurate numbers, but I think it's clear that the #WomensMarch (x2), the #MarchForOurLives and #KeepFamilesTogetherMarch were all bigger than the biggest of the Tea Party events and yet somehow are not nearly as interesting to the media.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 1, 2018
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
The Ancient Randonneur
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ☕☕☕
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Hate to say it, but the current incarnation of ICE does reflect our national morality.
rikyrah
b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) Tweeted:
it’s interesting that this question isn’t raised about republicans moving to the right even as the substantive GOP agenda is very unpopular. https://t.co/ILwmMOHWNI https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1013521103988379652?s=17
rikyrah
@kylegriffin1: The United Nations says that 18,500,000 Americans are in “extreme poverty.” Trump’s team claims just 250,000 are. https:/… https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1013532709807935490?s=17
rikyrah
@CREWcrew: Government spending at Trump properties BEFORE Trump became president: next to nothing
Government spending at Trump properti… https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1013542836615163912?s=17
Immanemtize
Greetings, morning people. Beyond odds, I got a bit of a sunburn yesterday wandering around Edinburgh. Truly a sign of the second coming!
Dinner last night with a wonderful group — US’ers, Scottish and Swiss. One fellow from Edinburgh and his friend from near Zurich told me that they were always happy to talk to Americans who were opposing Trump. It gave them hope. So, keep fighting, warriors! Our message is craved and helping far and wide.
rikyrah
@kylegriffin1: BuzzFeed News, ProPublica, The Intercept and Univision have announced that they’re partnering to gather vital information… https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1013048256669077505?s=17
Immanemtize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: only one narrow, crabbed, minority (yet powerful) version.
I am glad elected officials are starting the call for ICE reform. Because then we will be in a position to say, “this needed reform has been discussed for years” when we are in a position to do something about them.
Barbara
Fwiw WaPo had a live feed up for the entire DC event.
rikyrah
[email protected]: Unless you want to have to sneak from state to state to get an abortion, you have to fight. You have to get out and vote… That’s what Democrats need to scream about. Nobody wants a philosophy lesson. #AMJoy #RoevWade https://t.co/5joa1yycpn https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013476529697849350?s=17
SFAW
Schooley’s full of shit. The TeaBaggers were all REAL ‘Muricans.
Saturday, it was all THOSE people. Or, just as bad, people who want to treat THOSE people humanely, which is un-‘Murican as it gets.
Checkmate, libtards.
rikyrah
@Immanemtize:
Glad to hear from you. Hope that you and Little Imma are having a great trip ?
EZSmirkzz
Good morning AL, and all,.
No surprises at what the American media effete, er, elite won’t cover. A righty uptighty in Alabama gets covered but the riot in Portland Oregon is covered by the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/01/riot-in-portland-as-far-right-marchers-clash-with-anti-facists not to mention the FART act https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/02/trump-fart-act-report-blows-through-washington
Not sure if this is a play on words since British slang is apples and oranges here in the Uber States. Nothing like a docile press to keep civility up. And to think if it had been up to the NY Times the North would have folded and lost the Civil War. The more things change …
On the upside, the demonstrations this weekend were good for the soul. The physical discomfort was well worth the brain massage. It is absolutely necessary to re-enforce the humanity of not only the pilgrims but ourselves as well. If all we had was the media to go by I’d hate Americans too. Y’all rock. Thanks.
JPL
@Immanemtize: Reform is a good proposal, abolish probably now. I’m glad that you are having a good trip, and remember to take pictures.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Pretty funny – tone deaf Wilmer declined to answer whether ICE needs to be changed and later he took Sarah Huckabee’s side in the fake “civility” matter and he’s getting hammered by his own supporters.
Platonailedit
Look at the electoral map which the Mexican ‘left wing radical’ just won.
Eat that, twitler thug.
Platonailedit
His wining margin.
Jeffro
“Replace ICE” will play an awful lot better than “Abolish ICE”…not to win over Trumpublicans, of course, I’m talking about the squishes in the middle (all three of them ;)
Have a great day, folks, it’s gonna be a hot one here in true-blue NoVA!
OzarkHillbilly
@Platonailedit: Pales in comparison to trump’s electoral map, just ask him.
trnc
Jack Conway got 20,000 more votes in the Ky 2010 senate dem primary than Rand did in the repub primary, so naturally Conway was never mentioned again.
Betty Cracker
“Alexa, order ALL the popcorn!”
debbie
@Immanemtize:
Tell them they can speak up too. Nothing like a few Scottish epithets to bolster the flagging and the discouraged.
rikyrah
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
REP. @MAXINEWATERS: Let #Trump call me whatever he wants to call me. Let him say whatever he wants to say. He will not stop me. He cannot cause me to shut down. That’s what they would like to do… But he can’t do that to me. I won’t stand for it #AMJoy https://t.co/oXi7IuSCDd https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013445300944621569?s=17
rikyrah
The weather has broken ??
It’s only 72 and feels like 72 this morning ??
Darkrose
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Wilmer spent Saturday at a town parade in Vermont. There was a march in Burlington, but he couldn’t be arsed to go there when he could hang out and eat ice cream with an all white crowd. Our Revolution!
rikyrah
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
5 Big Issues Justice Kennedy’s Retirement Could Impact #AMJoy #SCOTUSnominee https://t.co/rWtqjFivkw https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013451136433557504?s=17
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Even some of its own agents are calling for change.
satby
Repeated from downstairs because I’m preoccupied:
’m struggling with a mystery, my youngest dog, Boomerang Bubba, was missing when I got up this morning and was bringing the dogs out. Missing from inside the basement, of which I went over with a fine tooth comb and high powered flashlight. I heard the dogs barking about 8pm before I locked up for the night,but only for a minute and they do that when my neighbor gets dropped off in the alley between our houses. I haven’t found him anywhere in the basement and now have to wonder if someone came in the back door and snatched him thinking he’s a pit pup. He’s not, he’s a 7 year old beagle-boston terrier mix. TBC.
I hate to think the Mexican guys taking the vines off my house came back and took him,too. But no one else seems likely, and dog fighting rings are Mexican run around here. It’s terrible to hope the little guy is just dead in a place I haven’t found yet rather than stolen for a possible bait dog.
Gin & Tonic
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Wilmer’s giving off an aroma redolent of last week’s fish.
p.s. Could I not have to re-type my nym for every comment? Please?
rikyrah
Jennifer Rubin tells the truth ??
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
[email protected]: What everyone has to be crystal clear about is everyone on that [#SCOTUS nominee] list, in order to get on the list, in order to be vetted by The Federalist Society, which put it together, has to be committed to overturning #RoevWade #AMJoy https://t.co/AMCAuHlsYD https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013451116389060608?s=17
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh ?
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
[email protected]@nytimes specifically will not call #Trump a liar. So this game is rigged. He knows the game is rigged… Too many in the press have just taken down the guard rails for Trump-just do whatever you want. We’re not going to hold you accountable in a serious way #AMJoy https://t.co/wd9UNPodeA https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013445121361227776?s=17
rikyrah
Why do I have to agree with Jennifer Rubin??
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
[email protected]: I am amazed at the ability of #Democrats to screw up a one-car parade. Why in the world would they come out and attack their own? Immediately the conversation has to be this is the most uncivil, racist, misogynistic, president who seeks to divide us #AMJoy https://t.co/GRgQnmDmWV https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013441728563564544?s=17
debbie
@EZSmirkzz:
I’m confident the Guardian is mocking Trump and that poorly thought-out title. On the other hand, NPR was mocking Canada’s choices of products to impose tariffs on. Gah!
rikyrah
Yes??
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
[email protected]: This administration has the courts, the House & Senate. All the American people have is their voice and vote. They need to be using both all the time. The reason they’re falling for this false equivalency is they don’t want these people in voting booths #AMJoy https://t.co/GDVcn3Az4W https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013440678645387265?s=17
rikyrah
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
[email protected]: Yes, there aren’t a lot of structural ways that Democrats can prevent [#Trump from securing another Supreme Court seat] … But at the end of the day the Democrats have to demonstrate that they are willing to go to the wall to stop this from happening. #AMJoy https://t.co/5RcBn4Ntty https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1013432980339978240?s=17
rikyrah
@satby:
So sorry, satby . I hope that you find him??
EZSmirkzz
My local media informs me that I’m not washing my hands correctly. This gives me a sad.
In other news, I should buy more stuff! Then I can buy a shed to put stuff in! I’ll be the stuffin shed king!
Is this a great country or what?
satby
@rikyrah: me too, thanks. He was fine yesterday, and no little body so far. I can’t imagine someone coming in though. Just bewildered, and having a coffee before I go move the freezer, which is the last possible place he could hide behind.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Sorry to hear this.
JPL
@satby: How horrible, and I can’t imagine the panic you are feeling. Hopefully, you find him soon.
RedDirtGirl
@satby: That’s a horrible choice of things to have to worry about! I’m so sorry. Let there be a happy ending. And if not that, a peaceful one.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
RE:. “Replace ICE” will play an awful lot better than “Abolish ICE”…not to win over Trumpublicans, of course, I’m talking about the squishes in the middle (all three of them ;)
How about “Repeal and Replace ICE.”
Trump knows about promises to repeal and replace stuff.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: I watched the first ten minutes of GMA, and George mentioned a few times his inclusion of country. If that’s true, it doesn’t appear likely that he is looking for a pardon.
Nah! Of course, he’s looking for a pardon.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for the advice yesterday, because ice and elevation was all that was needed.
rikyrah
cmad (@cmadmax) Tweeted:
@amjoyshow @JRubinBlogger There’s plenty ?dumped into promoting Trump’s pick & woo Collins, Murkowski, Manchin, Heitkamp, Donnelly or threaten w/funding opponents
Btw ACA is also at risk #AMJoy
@verucasalt10
A Lifetime Investment: Big Money Pours Into Supreme Court Battle – NPR
https://t.co/3fYovsSxMv https://twitter.com/cmadmax/status/1013474977721536513?s=17
Elizabelle
@satby: Oh Satby, I hope this story has a happy ending. Like maybe Bubba got loose and you will get him back. Keep us posted. Worrying way to start your week.
ETA: You know how to contact the vine workers. Can you ask them if they saw Bubba escape, and to keep an eye peeled? Emphasizing how much you love the dog? They may have had nothing to do with the disappearance, but if one of them did, maybe the others will get Bubba back to you.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Betty Cracker:
Shorter: I know where the bodies are buried.
Brachiator
@rikyrah: Has Jennifer Rubin joined the Democratic Party?
If not, I take her attack on the leadership with a huge amount of scepticism.
NotMax
Reform vanilla ICE.
NotMax
Shall contact Anne Laurie directly about it, but early heads-up if any NYC area B-Jers might be interested in a schmoozefest shall be there later this month. AFAIK. dates during my time there that are pretty much open are any between July 26 and Aug. 5, inclusive.
Dorothy Winsor
@satby: Oh man. I hope he turns up.
Quinerly
@satby: oh… how terrible. Just reading this. Keep us updated. So strange.
satby
Ok, happy news update! The stupid dog was hiding behind the washing machine and not responding to my calls, but he’s out and fine. The kerfluffle I heard was him and his buddy dog downstairs having a disagreement about food bowls last night, and Bubba is very submissive, so he went to hide. I blocked that area because I could only crawl part way I’m to get him and I don’t want any repeats. He has other safe places, but the dogs are both getting along fine now.
I’m doubly relieved because I hated suspecting my very nice vine removers, but missing dogs often means napped for dog fighting up here and it’s a legitimate fear.
Thanks everyone, I’m taking all the good thoughts as bringing me luck!
Cheryl Rofer
For the crowd numbers, Erica Chenoweth (@EricaChenoweth) and her co-workers are collating numbers from all over the country, as they have been for all the demonstrations since the Inauguration. The name of their project is Crowd Counting (@CrowdCounting) If you have numbers from your local paper or other source, tweet them to the project. I tweeted at them over the weekend that people were posting crowd numbers here, and they tweeted back thanks. I know they’ve used numbers I contributed before.
Quinerly
Cohen says his loyalty is to family and country: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cohen-wont-declare-loyalty-to-trump-hints-at-danger-he-could-pose-to-president
satby
@JPL: Yay! Glad you’re better!
Patricia Kayden
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: His supporters are just figuring him out now?
Elizabelle
@satby: Yea! Bubba!
Good news.
JPL
@satby: I’m relieved you found your dog.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: Good to hear that you found the pup, it reminds me of when my Conni went missing. Looked for her everywhere, at 5am, couldn’t find her. Then looking out back I hear a jingling sound coming from the crawl space under the place. The landlord had been doing work and left the access panel for the crawl space open and she went exploring.
Soprano2
It’s easy to figure out why the Tea Party got so much more coverage – it was run by white men, who are the only “real”voters according to the press. That’s why they constantly write about Trump supporters – they care a lot about what white men want and do and say, and not so much about the rest of us.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: We are at 73 after last night’s rain, and it says it feels like 73. The humidity is at 98%, though, so it still feels pretty awful. So muggy. But it beats a heat index of 115!
WaterGirl
@satby: Oh satby, just reading that makes me feel sick.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: yeah, I’m not at my sharpest before my coffee either; so easy to befuddle me. But I am surprised he didn’t come when I called.
The younger feral cat I have been feeding has gone AWOL too, so my brain was working overtime on worries of dire things.
satby
@WaterGirl: it’s ok, I found the little doofus.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Heh
Michelle Wolf to ivanka trump:
Quinerly
@satby: ?
WaterGirl
@satby: Oh my god, I haven’t even read your whole comment yet, but I am crying tears of joy at the news that you found your little scoundrel.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Darkrose: Wilmer hasn’t gone down to see child concentration camps either. Merkley, Warren, Booker have.
tobie
@Jeffro:
Agree.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I haven’t watched Michelle Wolf’s new show – maybe I should be! Reading that was very therapeutic.
Elmo
@satby: YAY! My full-grown German Shepherd once got herself into the space behind the mattress of a fold-out sleeper sofa, and didn’t make a peep when we folded it up and put the bed away in the morning. Then we left to run errands, leaving the house securely locked.
When we got back, we couldn’t find her anywhere, and couldn’t figure out where she’d gone. How could she get out? Where TF was she? Called and searched, not a peep.
The other dogs didn’t seem upset, which added to the mystery. We actually got in the car and canvassed the neighborhood. When we got back from that, she finally started to whine. Still don’t quite understand how she fit back there.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The Narative(tm) is Both Sides are moving their their extremes! Women in sensible shoes doesn’t fit that Narrative, implying that it’s the moderate majority that getting both activate and upset over the what is going on, so it’s unpossible it’s happening to the press.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@WaterGirl: it’s pretty funny. the only problem is her voice is screechy ala Gilbert Gottfried
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: “If you see Mitch McConnell at a restaurant, smile, then take his chair away before he can sit down and say, “How do you like having a seat stolen from you , you flopnit?””
Elizabelle
@Elmo: LOL. Is it having to maintain a sense of German Shepherd dignity? “I totally meant to get locked up within this piece of furniture.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah: Iit’s nor just the GOP is moving further and further to the Right, they’ve gone off over the Wingnut Event Horizon were the rest of them can’t understand them now. Take the “ICE liberating American towns occupied by MS-13”, Previous Conservative paranoia had a bases of truth to them, the Soviet Union was a rival of the US, Al Quaide wanted to kill Americans for the sake of killing and Ebola is one of the most dangerous diseases there is. But MS-13? The Right is so utterly terrified of everything now they are delusional, ignoring the real monsters and make up ones they can defeat.
raven
@satby: Years ago, and I MEAN years ago, we were at a big party in Carbondale and Ralph the dog (as a puppy) vanished. It was a rockin gig but we managed to cut through the fog and get people to fan out and search for him. We expected the worse since he was just a little tyke. After a couple of hours someone went to the head and he was curled up behind the toilet getting cool!
satby
@Elmo: yeah, I thought (was sure) I had actually taken the whole crew out after I had heard the rumpus downstairs and then I locked up, but you start to doubt your memories. I was calling him outside too, even though I couldn’t imagine how he would have gotten out.
Happy ending, especially since in the future my son in Kentucky wants to adopt him, as soon as he has a place that allows dogs. I wasn’t sure how I would tell him I somehow lost Bubba in my house ?
Elizabelle
@tobie: Agree too re “replace ICE.”
Civilize ICE works for me, too.
I wish we, as American citizens, could have a huge say in making the internal rules for those who represent and protect us. I wish we could claw back the obscure Senate rules that are used to obstruct and corrupt. Make them accountable and transparent.
I wish we could influence — sooner rather than later — policing rules and ICE policies. They serve and protect “us”, or so we’re meant to believe. But it gets corrupted into serving and protecting themselves (because we are too damned dangerous to deal with fairly and humanely).
Needs a housecleaning.
Elmo
@Elizabelle: OMG it’s like you know her. That’s *exactly* what it was. “What? Why are you upset? It’s a nice den, all dark and cozy.”
Elizabelle
@Elmo: I know. And then she got lonely, after a few hours.
How is your Anatolian Shepherd recovering? Also, how is your back holding out?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
WaterGirl
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: @OzarkHillbilly: I do like her style! But yes, her voice isn’t the most pleasant. I’ll have to give it a try anyway.
zhena gogolia
@satby:
Great news!
Are the nyms ever coming back?????
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
As with Gilbert Gottfried, her voice is an integral part of the routine.
Does it ring any bells about what men say about H. Clinton’s and E. Warren’s voices?
Kamala Harris, OTOH, has a low, mellow, powerful voice, so they won’t be able to use that on her.
Yarrow
@satby: Yay! That’s great news! Glad you found him.
raven
@Jeffro: What is the point of this? It’s not the agency it’s the policies of this idiot.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@raven: ICE was doing crap during the Obama admin, too. It was just more like typical bad cop crap instead of brownshirt imitations.
But I don’t think there’s any way back for it now.
Matt McIrvin
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: ICE always did crap, but at least Obama directed them to go after actual criminals rather than sweeping up the easiest-to-catch immigrants. They hated that.
Jeffro
@Brachiator: I’m totally down with “repeal and replace” ICE and think the voters will be too, nice one!
Jeffro
@Quinerly: “…and to my country” is, I believe, what is called a ‘tell’. As in, “Donald, I’m going to ‘tell’ them everything, m’man…”
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Trump is banging on about MS-13 because 21st century US fear of foreigners is all about 9/11, and he knows he needs an al Qaeda equivalent, but with Hispanic people. That’s the reason why he’s suddenly obsessed with a declining Salvadoran-affiliated street gang that began life in US prisons.
I think it helps that it’s called “MS-13” rather, than, say, “The Vipers” or something like that; the abbreviation makes them sound like a powerful terrorist group rather than a gang.
Jeffro
@raven: the agency is so off the hook, even some of its own agents are calling for it to be abolished…”replace” (or even better, “repeal and replace”) ICE plays better than “abolish”.
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly:
Great reads today – so pleased Satby found the dog in hiding
& to a lesser extent
Michelle Wolf remarks to ivanka trump.
My day got a little better.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
The point is, Democrats always find a way to shoot themselves in the foot.
Elmo
@Elizabelle: He’s a lot better today, thanks. And my wife piled enough pillow together last night that I actually got some sleep. Still it’s a long recovery ahead. Big dog, big surgery.
satby
@Elmo: Good news on the Elmo home front too. May both the rest and recovery continue.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Who is this Wilmer person? Is that a slang name for one Bernie Sanders that I’m the last to know about (nothing abnormal about that)?
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin: The Vapors about “The Vipers.”
MS-13 sounds like an illicit street drug, too.
rikyrah
@satby:
YEAH SATBY :)
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ??
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
HOLLERING!!
Kay
@raven:
This sounds paranoid but I worry a little about it because it’s so heavily promoted on social media and I worry about Russian interference. I don’t know what Russian interference would look like, so I’m just in the dark and when I see something pop up and suddenly it’s all over the place I get concerned.
We know the Trump-backing foreign political operatives seize in racial/ethnic/fear issues because they (rightly) concluded those issues resonate with the hard Right. We also know Republicans are running on ginning up fear of immigrants and that Russian interference continues and will be part of the 2018 campaigns. That’s all I have. That’s all the information we’ve been given.
It’s hard. A difficult environment to operate in, because you don’t want to NOT talk about civil rights but you also don’t want to get used or exploited. Maybe there’s no way to deal with it and the best you can do is hope they’re not manipulating these issues for their own gain. We simply don’t have enough information to judge what is “real” and what is being amplified by the far Right in other countries.
Raven
@Kay: I agree, there is no way it’s going to happen but it sure gives them fuel.
Mnemosyne
@satby:
Phew! I’m glad that you were able to find him alive and well after all. Silly puppy, scaring his mommy like that. ?
Heidi Mom
@satby: Oh thank God, I’m so glad you found him! The things our pets do that we could never imagine . . . . My doctor told me that both of his old dogs have almost given him a heart attack by sleeping so soundly that he thought they were dead, then after much calling, shouting, and shaking, waking up with a disgruntled look as if to say “What?!” I guess the appropriate advice is “don’t panic,” but that’s so very hard to do when it comes to our pets.
Kay
@Raven:
That’s ALSO hard though because the Democratic base are tired of being told to stand down. It’s more than Democrats on the internet. Our local Party people are just done with compromising or trying to appease those on the Right. So in a way they WANT to add fuel. It’s hard to argue with them- it’s true that appeasing and compromising got them nothing. Worse than nothing. The far Right is more emboldened now than they were when Trump was elected. Activists say “Trump would have demonized anything Democrats did so it doesn’t matter”. That’s true. They see his extremeness as a kind of license to go further, which they’ve been wanting to do anyway. There’s fairness in that. I understand why it’s appealing to them.
I don’t know how to analyze any of this. I’m not sure we can think about in the same ways we always have.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Morning to you. I just rented my first ever jackhammer! It barely fit in Poco’s Escape. Wish my contractor and me luck. We are cracking a basement floor! I’m stoked.
Kay
@Raven:
It’s also objectively true that Democrats in Congress DID try to compromise on immigration. They have tried for decades. It got nowhere. They offered TRUMP a deal. It wasn’t in Trump’s POLITICAL interest to take it because he needs the fear of immigrants to keep his base juiced up so he reneged.
The Democratic base look at that and they say “no more working with the far Right- we’re going our own way” That’s understandable.
It is funny though how the far Right moved so smoothly and easily from fear-mongering on terrorism to fear-mongering on immigration. This far Right Trumpian movement is fear-soaked. Fear is the main selling point. It’s all “stop”, all negative. Halt immigration, pull out of trade agreements and NATO, stop civil rights progress. It’s wholly negative.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I wondered. I wondered what would replace terrorism as their fear point. I didn’t have to wonder long.
It’s following the same trajectory, the same script. The hordes of invaders are back. We had a brief respite from 2008 to 2016 but now the scary hordes invading our country are back front and center in Right wing campaigns.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
There’s a really practical reason for limiting Latino immigration that Republicans feed to their base and it really resonates. They tell them that Latinos will be Democrats. It’s vote-counting. Not abstract at all. That’s how it differs from the terrorism fear mongering. They say the immigrants will VOTE, which is really an incentive to their base. It’s the whole grounding of Kobach’s career- “there will be more brown people voting for Democrats”.
Kay
I’m basically fine with whatever activists do – right or wrong, it’s always been true that the people who show up get to set the debate and they’re showing up. I just don’t want to be used by some far Right kleptocrats in another country.
I don’t know how to measure that let alone guard against it. I don’t think anyone does, outside of maybe Mueller and even he will only have a narrow focus, the pieces that are relevant or actionable as far as violating a statute. He’s not about “elections”, broadly. He’s a prosecutor. They take information and see it if fits inside laws. If it doesn’t they see if it violates specific elements of unlawful behavior. They don’t analyze “Russian interference” because 99% of it isn’t going to be illegal.
We need more information and we just aren’t getting it.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay:
I agree, but I think we know enough now that we can be careful. Check sources before sharing a bit of information. Stay alert for information on troll campaigns from trusted sources. Unfortunately, there aren’t as many or as thorough of these as there are open-source WMD analysts.
Adam and I are following this. I don’t post everything I’ve got because it’s so half-formed that I don’t think it will be a help yet. As the election approaches, there is likely to be more.
jonas
@Quinerly: Shorter Cohen interview: “Dear NYC jury pool: I’m one of you — a real American, not a tool of that awful man in the White House whose lickspittle I was for so many years.”
jonas
@Kay: Projection as always — the big welcome mat laid out in Florida for any and all Cubans was a blatant attempt to shore up a pro-Republican voter base around Miami to counterbalance the NE snowbirds. They did it for years, so they figure that this is also what the Dems are scheming at.
Of course IF a new generation of American immigrants is more sympathetic to Democrats, Republicans might try not regularly referring to them as vermin, animals, rapists, etc.
afanasia
@Kay: Republicans have certainly ensured that most new Latino immigrants will vote D as soon as they can vote. That wasn’t inevitable. But why organize outreach programs when you can ruin lives instead?
LAC
@Brachiator: jennifer rubin has been speaking truth to power for a while. She didnt waste tine or ink on how we can reach trump chumps or both sides yada yada that we got from the so called progressive lot. Who da thunk it?