Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

We will not go back.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

“Alexa, change the president.”

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

I really should read my own blog.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / GOP Clown Car Open Thread: Steve King’s Demand & Sulk ‘Diamond & Silk’ Act

GOP Clown Car Open Thread: Steve King’s Demand & Sulk ‘Diamond & Silk’ Act

by | 48 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Rep. Steve ‘Pigmuck’ King’s saying-the-quiet-parts-out-loud antics have grown sufficiently egregious that even the Racist-in-Chief’s staff decided he couldn’t mooch a ride home on Air Force One (not even in the back, as some twitter wag noted). So King felt called on to break out the big guns…

Per NYMag, “Steve King, Diamond, and Silk Deflect Racism Charges by Unveiling Racist Legislation”:

Iowa Republican and white supremacist U.S. representative Steve King unveiled the “Diamond and Silk Act” on Wednesday. Officially dubbed the End Sanctuaries and Help Our American Homeless and Veterans Act, the legislation seeks to redirect federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities — jurisdictions that decline to help federal authorities arrest and deport undocumented immigrants — to programs that aid homeless people and veterans.

The act’s unofficial title is inspired by its unofficial co-sponsors: Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, better known by their stage names, Diamond and Silk. Together, the pair hosts a conservative video series on YouTube aimed at ridiculing Democrats and boosting Republicans, especially President Donald Trump, for whom they left the Democratic Party to support in 2015.

Diamond and Silk’s appeal to Republicans — the vast majority of whom are white — is that they are black women willing to exonerate the GOP of its racism. They conducted themselves accordingly on Wednesday when they joined King on Capitol Hill to announce their partnership. Reporters asked what they thought of the congressman’s retweeting white supremacists. “I’m tired of you all playing the race card,” Hardaway retorted. “It’s time to start working for Americans. And stop calling everybody a racist.”…

It remains unclear how much longer Republicans will persist in the charade that allegations of racism can be waved away by the contrarianism of any random black person. But King seems willing to see how far it will carry him. The dishonesty underlying this approach is something of a turnaround from the openness with which he broadcast his white supremacism in the Times profile earlier this year. But if nothing else, it suggests that he learned his lesson from the Republican fallout: You can be a white supremacist as long as you lie and claim you are not one.

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    oatler.

    Diamond in the back, sunroof top
    Diggin the scene
    With a gangsta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh

  2. 2.

    oatler.

    Diamond in the back, sunroof top
    Diggin the scene
    With a gangsta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh

  3. 3.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I believe that this is one of those places where rikyrah (if she were up this late) would mention slave catchers and then swear a bit.

  4. 4.

    BlueDWarrior

    I mean I could swear for her, but I’m on the clock and I have possible jury selection in the morning.

  8. 8.

    CarolDuhart2

    Maybe I can swear in her place. I wouldn’t call them slave catchers, but Aunt Toms are just as good. Dim bulbs like Candace Owens, but even dimmer. They both will be “Do You Want Fries With That” once their white finds (hah!) remember they are black or have no more use for them (whichever comes first).
    They are not only not welcome to our cookout, but really, anybody’s cookout anymore (Latino, Asian, whatever). They get to sit in the car.

  9. 9.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    Is it weird that I have very little animosity toward Diamond and Silk (or as Dr. Seuss would call them, Weave One and Weave Two)?

    Why should white folks have a monopoly on wingnut welfare? I’m reminded of Hattie McDaniels’ famous quote: “I’d rather make $700 a week playing a maid than earn $7 a day being a maid.”

    Off topic but I’ve been dying to discuss this; am I the only person convinced the Linda Fairstein situation is going to boomerang on us?

    Long story short, Fairstein wrongfully prosecuted the Central Park five and due to the recent media scrutiny she lost her book deal and teaching position. Kamala Harris (and/or her office) also prosecuted several men who turned out to be innocent.

    I have no opinion on the topic one way or another, but mark my words—the right will find a way to weaponize this.

  10. 10.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @hervevillechaizelounge:

    Fairstein wrongfully prosecuted the Central Park five and due to the recent media scrutiny she lost her book deal and teaching position. Kamala Harris (and/or her office) also prosecuted several men who turned out to be innocent.

    Fairstein is still saying, absent any evidence, that the accused boys were guilty of something to do with the attack on Trisha Meili, the “Central Park jogger.” That’s appalling. On the other hand – serious questions, I don’t know the answers: Is Harris still trying to smear the innocent men she prosecuted? Did she or her office ever acknowledge that they were not in fact guilty? Were the charges supported by sufficient evidence to pursue the cases? If yes, I wouldn’t entirely fault her for doing her job, which was, after all, prosecutor – while also totally acknowledging that there’s a vast amount of judgment and leeway in decisions to pursue cases, and she, like ALL prosecutors, sometimes pursued weak cases with vigor and possibly bias and dishonesty.

    That said, I agree, the right will use this to attack Senator Harris because that’s what they do. Hell, they’ll attack her for wearing the wrong color suit. I don’t give a shit about that, and we can’t cede that ground to them.

  11. 11.

    Plato

    Romney: Trump's remarks are "simply unthinkable." "I ran for president twice. I ran for governor once. I ran for Senate twice. I've never had any attempt made by a foreign government … Had that occurred, I would've contacted the FBI immediately." pic.twitter.com/WhyxCze8c7— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 14, 2019

    But now I will do nothing about the actual criminal in the Oval Office. Aren’t I an awesome rich white man?— sean stafford (@seanmstafford) June 14, 2019

  12. 12.

    Patricia Kayden

    I’m sure that Diamond and Silk are making a whole lot of $$$ by being Black tokens for the Republican Party. Ditto the odious Candace Owens. This is the era of grifting.

  13. 13.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    No@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    I have no idea what Kamala Harris has to say on the matter now but (like all prosecutors) she did vigorously oppose the DNA testing that ultimately exonerated them.

    I had no idea Linda Fairstein was still speaking about the Central Park five case—I haven’t watched any of the anniversary shows because there’s too too much fuckery going on right now to spend time agonizing about the past.

    I suppose even without Fairstein anyone innocent Kamala inadvertently prosecuted would end up a FoxNews regular—like that woman whose brother was killed by Ben Ghazi (who turned out to be Hillary Clinton wearing a hockey mask, IIRC).

    This primary process is the psychic equivalent to passing a Plymouth rock-sized kidney stone:(

  16. 16.

    Scotian

    Well, just got the call that my dad passed away. Knew it was coming but still…

    Thanks Jackels for letting me have this space to vent, first about his terminal cancer as well as mine. It is appreciated beyond my ability to put into words, and when one is as wordy as I am, that is really saying something…lol.

    I am going to try to get back to sleep now, it is 535 am where I am.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Scotian:

    When great trees fall,

    rocks on distant hills shudder,

    lions hunker down

    in tall grasses,

    and even elephants

    lumber after safety.



    When great trees fall

    in forests,

    small things recoil into silence,

    their senses

    eroded beyond fear.



    When great souls die,

    the air around us becomes

    light, rare, sterile.

    We breathe, briefly.
    Our eyes, briefly,

    see with

    a hurtful clarity.

    Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

    examines,

    gnaws on kind words

    unsaid,

    promised walks

    never taken.


    Great souls die and

    our reality, bound to

    them, takes leave of us.

    Our souls,

    dependent upon their

    nurture,

    now shrink, wizened.

    Our minds, formed

    and informed by their

    radiance,
fall away.

    We are not so much maddened

    as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of
    dark, cold

    caves.



    And when great souls die,

    after a period peace blooms,

    slowly and always

    irregularly. Spaces fill

    with a kind of

    soothing electric vibration.

    Our senses, restored, never

    to be the same, whisper to us.

    They existed. They existed.

    We can be. Be and be

    better. For they existed.

    ― Maya Angelou

  20. 20.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Scotian: Hugs seem so inadequate in your situation. But I’m going to say something outrageous: as well as grief, you probably are relieved. He won’t see you go, and you won’t have to worry about him anymore. It must be bittersweet considering your situation that it ended like this.

    Make the best of what you have left, and if it doesn’t look like regular mourning, damn them.

  21. 21.

    Gvg

    @hervevillechaizelounge: what are you talking about? Kamela Harris is from California and had nothing to do with the Central Park 5 in New York City which was a case in the 80’s.
    Who knows what the right will come up with to try to deflect. There is no point in trying to guess what crazy people think. They come up with child abuse in non existent basements of pizza parlors. Just get on with beating them in elections. And put the real law breakers in jail.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    Rock & Burlap’s (H/T: Joy Reid) parents were/are small-time, grifty televangelists who shake elderly people down for a cut of their Social Security checks to support the “ministry” and peddle herbal youth elixirs and fat-melting formulas to the desperate and gullible. Rock & Burlap just found a more lucrative set of marks.

  23. 23.

    opiejeanne

    @Scotian: Hugs are inadequate. I wish you comfort and relief, and I see that CarolDuhart2 has said what I was thinking.

  26. 26.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: Maya Angelou was a treasure.

    Hey, are you interested in getting together with us and possibly some other jackals in St Louis on the 27th? Or is that invconvenient?

  27. 27.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Betty Cracker: So when this grift is over-and it will end-they don’t seem to have the credentials to move into the long-term stuff like Fox or even a think tank-they can just rejoin the old family business.

    Figures.

    You will know it’s happening when they start hawking the old family remedies on an informercial or something as well as the stuff they are doing now. It’s all just a hustle…just a hustle.

  31. 31.

    Nicole

    @Scotian: I’m so sorry. Thinking of you today. And come here to vent as much as you need to. God knows plenty of us come here to vent about much less consequential things.

  32. 32.

    Ben Cisco

    Zirconia and Rayon are less than impressive. And to quote Bomani Jones, “All money ain’t good money.”

  35. 35.

    Soprano2

    @opiejeanne: I saw that you’re visiting relatives in the Ozarks. Where exactly in the Ozarks do they live? I’m in Springfield – it’s lonely here for a liberal. LOL

  38. 38.

    kindness

    I wonder if Diamond & Silk have any family that is willing to still talk to them. Holiday family functions you know have some fireworks in that family.

  40. 40.

    J R in WV

    @Gvg:

    Kamala Harris was born in 1964, so in 1989 she was probably still in law school, or perhaps just in college. So all the hoo-rah about the Central Park Five was long before she was a prosecutor 3,000 miles away from that case.

  41. 41.

    J R in WV

    @Scotian:

    I’m sorry for your loss, Scotian. And I know you will have mixed feelings about this life event, how could you not given your own health situation? Don’t let anyone ride you based upon your own genuine emotional reactions!

    Take care, keep us posted!

  42. 42.

    opiejeanne

    @Soprano2: Ha! I can imagine your loneliness.

    My husband’s cousin has condo at Osage Beach. She and her husband are there for the summer and invited us. We’ll be with them for three nights while I do some research for my book. My own cousins, the few that used to be rational, lost their collective minds when that n****r got elected and I don’t talk to them online, and most of the interesting older ones are now deceased. I should mention that Macks Creek had a population of 300 and I was related to all but one of them.

  43. 43.

    Cameron Ramey

    @hervevillechaizelounge:

    Or, maybe we just shouldn’t elect someone who has no problem prosecuting innocent people. There are plenty of other great candidates like Warren. So I don’t really see how this situation could boomerang on “us?”

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    @opiejeanne: LOL, Macks Creek. I used to be related to half the population of Bois D’ Arc, which only had a few residents. Lake of the Ozarks is nice this time of year even if you have to put up with Trump lovers (and there are a lot of them around here). I laugh whenever a Trumpie says I don’t understand the Trump voter, because I’m surrounded by them!! They think all the liberals live on the coasts. Honestly, Springfield is getting better because more people are moving here from other places, but it’s a slow process. My mother is a crazy conservative, so I feel your pain about your relatives. It helps that my husband & I mostly agree about these things. I would invite you to my restaurant/bar, but it’s too far to drive when you’re only here a couple of days. I hope you have good weather for your trip.

  45. 45.

    Wayward

    @Cameron Ramey: But that’s what trials are for. There are bound to be some innocent folks prosecuted in our system. That is unfortunate (and potentially devastating for those individuals), the use of jury trials is a check on prosecutorial overreach. That said, I’m sure prosecutors sometimes bring cases to trial because they miss something, or based on witness accounts that turn out to be bad. The jury system (theoretically, at least) can deal with these situations as well.

  46. 46.

    opiejeanne

    @Soprano2: We are making a loop, from Camden County to St Louis, to Memphis, TN to Oxford, MS, maybe to Vicksburg, then back from Memphis toward KC, stopping overnight probably in Lebanon, MO. I’m interested in the old jail and anything else I find. The three days we’re staying with the cousin in Osage Beach will include a good look at Miller County’s museum at Tuscumbia and maybe talking to a cousin who owns my Great Grandmother’s house, but I think he’s the same one who lost his mind when Obama was elected. He’s a distant cousin. I lost one first cousin I didn’t know about until my grandma’s funeral in 1985, and that’s a pity, He used to be a great guy. One of my other first cousins from the area I lost when she married an oaf, an idiot, a guy who thinks he’ll be safe going to a movie in KC because everyone inside will be packing. She used to be fun, she’s not any more. I may visit her sister instead.

  47. 47.

    Lapassionara

    @Scotian: Infinite sadness. And thanks to Ozark for the poem. For some reason, I find that poetry and bird song are comforting. Anyway, we are thinking about you on your journey.

Comments are closed.