As you’ve no doubt heard, the Short-Fingered Vulgarian announced a plan to round up “millions” of undocumented immigrants via tweet last night:
This was news to ICE, according to The Post:
U.S. officials with knowledge of the preparations have said in recent days that the operation was not imminent, and ICE officials said late Monday night that they were not aware that the president planned to divulge their enforcement plans on Twitter.
I’d rather gouge out my eyes with a melon baller than watch Trump’s klan rally/2020 campaign launch from Orlando tonight, but I’d bet my next paycheck that anti-immigrant demagoguery will feature prominently in the evening’s bellowing. We’ve seen this movie before. Trump will make stupid accordion gestures with his tiny mitts and leer, snarl, strut and lie in an attempt to sound tough. The rage-fart huffers of Cult45 will stomp and hoot in approval.
But whenever Trump cranks up the bigotry, it’s a sign of weakness. Greg Sargent at The Post has it exactly right:
It has never been clear whether Trump acknowledges any political downside to his immigration cruelties and all around border-related impulsiveness. He appears to refuse to accept that they helped Democrats win a large national majority in the 2018 House races. He appears certain — outwardly, at least — that in 2020, this focus will energize his core supporters by enough to tip the electoral college, due to disproportionate numbers of blue-collar whites in the Rust Belt.
But the backdrop to all this is that the Trump campaign is firing several pollsters, because internal data leaked revealing Trump as deeply vulnerable to losing reelection — including trailing in Rust Belt states.
Trump still enjoys the advantages of incumbency and the good economy. But if his immigration agenda in particular is helping boost his reelection chances in those places, there’s no sign of it yet. Until that changes, this threat of mass arrests looks more than anything else like doubling down on a failing strategy — both substantively and politically.
In addition to firing up racist, xenophobic base voters, mean-spirited immigrant bashing frightens squishy Republican Never Trumpers like Andrew Sullivan and David Frum, who are urging Democrats to take a harder line on immigration — despite being immigrants themselves. Remind me again why we should listen to those assholes? Oh right, we shouldn’t — fuck them.
Candidates Julián Castro and Beto O’Rourke have compassionate, comprehensive immigration proposals. Even if neither man makes it to the ticket, it’s my hope that their proposals gain support in the primary, just as I hope many of Warren’s economic policies become part of the Democratic Party platform in 2020, even if she’s not the nominee.
Outside of Trump’s rabid, dwindling base, cruelty doesn’t play well. But Trump is going to double, triple, and quadruple down on immigrant-bashing from tonight on through election day — not because he’s strong, but because he’s weak.
That means we’ll have to stay strong, because friends, shit’s about to get even uglier. This may be a good time to reach out to immigrants in your life who are understandably anxious about the climate in this country and let them know you stand with them.
mrmoshpotat
I preferred the pig face on Dump’s tweets. Maybe a horse’s ass if the pig face was too nice?
rikyrah
“The Cruelty IS the point.”
—-Adam Serwer
Defining the motto for this Administration
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Man, he sure hates his in-laws.
rikyrah
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
David Brooks defending the Parkland High School teen denied admission to Harvard because of his racist social media postings really underscores the need for more diversity at the New York Times.
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
David Brooks is on record as an Affirmative Action critic & wrote in 2013 that AA discriminated against Asian students. It’s a nifty sleight of hand 2 place the blame 4 the necessity of AA on those who were trafficked as property 2 found & subsidize Ivy League Institutions.
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
David Brooks gives voice to a particular brand of preachy entitlement that always reserves the fruits of society’s privileges for people of his race and social class. It is insulting to see him use the paper of record as a platform to preserve, protect and defend inequality. https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1141030122981433345?s=17
mrmoshpotato
I preferred the pig face on Dump’s tweets. Maybe use a cartoon horse’s ass if you want to change it up?
Fuck Trump and his white trash Nuremberg rallies. I’ll be watching the Crosstown Classic.
germy
Black tie, white noise.
mrmoshpotato
@mrmoshpotato: Delete my moderated comment. Typo in my name.
TenguPhule
Which means its been planned. They have a mass incarceration/extermination planned out.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Florida 2020 Poll — Quinnipiac — June 18
Democratic Nominee vs Dump
Biden……. 50-41
Wilmer….. 48-42
Warren….. 47-43
Pete……… 44-43
Kamala….. 45-44
——————————————
Democratic Primary Poll — Quinnipiac — June 18
Biden………41%
Wilmer…….14%
Warren…….12%
Pete…………8%
Kamala……..6%
TenguPhule
And if he’s counting on Russian, Saudi, Chinese and everyone else’s help, preparing for mass arrests of the opposition sure looks like a winning strategy for him.
I mean, its not like cops and national guardsmen haven’t done worse when the situation arose.
rikyrah
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I appreciate you always keeping us up to date on polling. :)
Betty Cracker
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Not surprised Biden is running strong in God’s Waiting Room. Luckily for those of us who prefer other Democratic candidates, the race won’t be decided by Florida.
JAF Rusty Shackleford
Even if this ICE threat is bogus, my family still has to plan for it. This means that my wife and kids will sleep over at a friend’s house on Sunday night in case there is an early knock on the door Monday morning. Depending on what happens Monday, we may have to make similar arrangement all week. I’m scheduled to fly to San Francisco on Weds for work and won’t get back until late Friday. I can’t cancel the trip, and it will be nearly impossible to concentrate due to the stress.
Even if this is just a idle threat the stress is going to take years off my life. I hate this man and his supporters. As bad as he is, and he’s awful, his supporters are worse.
NotMax
A campaign event but will hazard an educated guess that the entirety of it is being put on the public credit card.
TenguPhule
So this year’s American corn crop is gonna be less then expected.
A lot less.
/cue world’s second smallest violin
Betty Cracker
@TenguPhule: I’m not convinced the Chinese want to help Trump win. Having a moronic chaos agent in charge of an economic rival benefits them, but he’s also a loose cannon who threatens the world’s economy.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Every city and county should refuse to provide any police or security for Trump unless he puts cash up front. He never pays his bills for any of those rallies.
chopper
isn’t drumpf supposed to be mr. “never reveal your plans!”? and here he is telling everyone la migra is on its way a week before.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
For your listening pleasure.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
China plays long long game. He’s their best chance of consolidating control of the South China sea and taking out Taiwan. Global economic chaos would be a cheap price to pay from their perspective for that.
Betty Cracker
@JAF Rusty Shackleford: I’m sorry you’re going through that hellish stress for no reason other than for the amusement of hateful racist pigs.
@TenguPhule: That does make sense.
TenguPhule
Fuck the Republicans with rusty chainsaws.
germy
MattF
As far as I can tell, Trump has two main tricks. Trick one is ‘lie about everything all the time’. Trick two is ‘blame immigrants’. I’m open to arguments that there are more, but we’re talking limited behavioral repertoire here, so there can’t be a lot more. There are a couple of subsidiary tricks– e.g., ‘blame Obama’– but the two big ones are the main act. Thing is, the big ones are getting less effective.
Just about everyone and everyone’s grandmother have caught on to Trump’s lying. And immigration has gotten down to seizing four-month old infants– so they’ve both gone far past the WTF level. Maybe it’s just me, but the Trump brand isn’t as entertaining as it used to be. And I think the media have noticed.
Kay
Another low quality crony hire. Bottom o the barrel. They have to pass the Sanders-Huckabee “lying test” and that’s the only qualification.
jl
@TenguPhule: Trump’s ignorance and stupidity are dumbfounding. Most likely cause of the next recession is slowdown in world economic growth outside of US, but Trump doesn’t want European Central Bank to ease their rates, even though much better case they should that for the Fed. And apparently there are back door threats if ECB eases rates. What an idiot.
And then there is the complete incoherence re Iran. Trump says his policy is working because Iran is saying much nicer things (maybe he got a love letter from them?), but he’ll go to war over Iran breaking treaty (after he was the one who broke the treaty).
Right besides the maliciousness and bigotry, is the stupidity, incompetence and ignorance. Nice combo.
NotMax
Anyone on the scene checking for sudden price gouging on tiki torches? //
ET
I assume the background on this tweet went something like this……
Someone says something about ICE sending back 50+ detainees over the next few months, and isn’t it nice numbers slowed for a few days last month
Then the tRump translator hamster in his head gets spinning and it has morphed into millions, next week, and Mexico is finally doing things they way he wants.
lurker dean
@JAF Rusty Shackleford: i have a friend and his family at risk. i suspect a lot of folks don’t appreciate the massive stress involved even with idle threats. i pray it’s an idle threat and that you, your family, and the others potentially affected will be okay. it sounds like you have plans but i’m in the philadelphia area and have room if that’s any help.
rikyrah
@JAF Rusty Shackleford:
So sorry that your family has to go through this. Yes, I, too, loathe his supporters more than him.
Kay
Here’s the Gorka’s former grift before Trump hired her for you-all to pay her salary:
Brachiator
@chopper:
Typically, Trump brags about not revealing his plans just as he reveals his plans.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: It’s not imminent because they have no way of conducting it.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
Yeah! It’s so much harder to vote from a concentration camp. Will we be able to get absentee ballots?
@Kay:
Hmmm… Is KATHARINE GORKA any relative of the well known and famed strategic and tactical genius, Sebastian Gorka? Adam?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@rikyrah: Gracias, chica
CathieFonz
As I suspected, its just more “Promises Made Promises Kept” Trump BS.
He needs to be able to tell The Faithful in Florida today that he is actually deporting all those illegals, so he is just announcing it without actually putting anything into effect, like he has done so often before.
I expect there will be video sometime showing two or three bus loads of brown people going into Mexico, with lots of talk about the Trump Caravan and high-fiving as it passes through some town or check point, and then nothing else will ever happen. Except he will be able to crow about it on his stump speech.
chopper
@Brachiator:
“i have a cunning plan that can not fail”
chris
@J R in WV: Wife… Ew!
Major Major Major Major
Adam L Silverman
The reason this operation is described as not imminent is that it is aspirational, even if someone sat down an actually did a formal operational plan (OPPLAN) or concept of operations (CONOP). It’s aspirational because the US does not have the resources to do this. We don’t have enough Customs & Border Patrol officers, we don’t have enough Immigration & Customs Enforcement officers, we don’t have enough US Customs and Immigration Services personnel. We don’t have the vans to move those rounded up. We don’t have the spaces to house them. And we don’t have enough immigration judges to handle the backlog of cases for review we have now, let alone one or several million more. We also have no way of making spot determinations on someone’s status because we don’t have a national identity card that includes citizenship and/or legal residency status.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@chopper: it’s almost like he’s trying to distract from his tanking poll numbers and recent russian treason.
matt
@TenguPhule: The term ‘concentration camp’ is not specific to the Holocaust. The people acting like it is should be thrown in an outdoor camp prison type thingie.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
I don’t prefer either man, but Biden is right.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
I’ve read reports that there’s going to be a food shortage in the US as a result of the storms that have ravaged the Midwest
lee
Didn’t Trump threaten this last summer as well?
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
Agreed. What they wanted was the media reporting and that’s what they got.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: If one more pudgy blonde white evangelical Christian woman tells me what is and isn’t anti-Semitic, we’re going to have a problem.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Major Major Major Major: poor Wilmer and Weigel – they’ve been reduced to “hey Biden briefly alluded to us”. No wonder Warren with her deep substance is passing them.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: It’s an ongoing grift. They never shut the company and Seb still does courses through it.
Brachiator
I’m not going to watch it either, but I will pay attention to the best coverage of the event.
Trump feeds on these rallies and often feels free to let loose and be himself. He often lets slip what his next plan or executive order will be.
If this is his re-election kickoff, he might be especially full of himself.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
The “best” part (which I’m sure you’re well aware of) is that Republicans only give a damn about Jewish people because argle bargle armageddon doubleplus good, heaven comes to Earth
TenguPhule
@MattF:
Stiff his contractors.
trollhattan
Each time Trump gives one of his klan rally addresses I’d like it accompanied by one of these as illustration. I must add, Benito is the better dresser.
trollhattan
Somebody arrest Sam Kerr before she murders poor Jamaica.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
You mean they don’t like the guy who launched a trade war against them?
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV: His wife. She was on the DHS landing team and then was a senior political appointee, as a senior advisor, at DHS. She’s been there since the transition. And she’s not the only nut. This whackjob also managed to get a similar appointment and was also on the transition landing team:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/a-fake-jihadist-has-landed-a-top-job-at-homeland-security/
https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-frank-wuco/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/frank-wuco-white-house-adviser-muslims-homeland-security_n_5a664e38e4b0dc592a0ba00e
Despite what the second link says, Wuco never advised the government while roleplaying as a jihadi. Rather, he charged outrageous speaker’s fees to give talks on what he defines as jihad while, during the talk, transforming himself into a jihadi, including fake, broken English accent.
Kay
@Adam L Silverman:
Ugh. They’ll be rolling her out for for the campaign hate-fest against immigrants in 2020.
Baud
@JAF Rusty Shackleford:
It’s a large part of why 2016 happened. Our side has a history of associating evil with elites, and we were left on our heels when faced with … let’s say, deplorability … by those were not elites.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
Trick three is to have so many scandals going on at the same time that the media can’t focus on any one of them.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Yet.
The unspoken implication in their responses to his tweet is that they are not denying that there are plans and that they are working towards actually being able to carry them out.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: That’s why I’ve formed the Donner Party and am running for president on the platform of a relative or neighbors rib roast in every oven.
Feathers
My parents (in their 80s) have signed the papers to become the guardians of the US-born children of a young mother they have been working with through the local interfaith charity, should she be deported. Mother had a green card but lost it when she missed a hearing because she was afraid her abusive husband would be there. Before all the shitiness, there was a chance she could have gotten the green card back, but not now.
We were talking about how truly evil evangelicals are driving all of this, and that Catholics and others need to step up to care for these kids, pledging to reunite the families, however long that takes. There should be an excommunication order for any Catholics participating in this.
ETA: or at least a denial of the sacraments.
TenguPhule
@matt: Well played.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: No spoilers! I’m recording that one while watching Brazil V Italy.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: Unlikely. She’s wisely kept her head down and her mouth shut. My guess is there will be very few press events at C&BP. And that she’s been moved into this spot because the Acting DHS secretary wanted her away from his office.
Mikeindublin
Deep man, deep.
rikyrah
Does Kamala Harris Have a Working-Class Black Man Problem? It’s Complicated
Jason Johnson
Today 9:11am
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: They’d have to hire thousands upon thousands of C&BP and ICE and USCIS officers and personnel. They then have to go through FLEOTSC.
Roger Moore
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
That’s totally unfair. Republicans also care about Jewish people because they love to make Holocaust comparisons every time they’re mildly inconvenienced.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
The mistake you’re making is that you’re trying to analyze this plan from the view of someone who is not crazy pants bugfuck nuts.
They don’t care about legal or humane. They’re thinking national guard with military grade weapons marching mass arrested prisoners down the road like a nightmarish parade, making them sleep on the ground until they can be herded into designated areas for disposal. They have no plans for judges to be involved other then to sign off that the operation is legal. Citizenship will be determined by whatever the fuck those in charge think would be best for them personally.
That’s their plan.
raven
@Feathers: Fuck some catholics.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Okie-dokie. Don’t think I’m giving anything away to note Australia is finally looking like Australia, playing with their typical NMFTG style.
Pealse
@Kay: Probably not a popular opinion, but at some point we need to abolish law enforcement, defund it, make them all re-apply for their jobs. The taxpayer money just supports one right wing grift after another. If its not those “constitutional sheriffs” meetings, or “III Per-centers” or “Oath Keepters” recruiting from these ranks, its these “Security Consultants” who are brought in to spew non-sense, or their off running around on internal junkets paid for by Putin. Guiliani and Gorka and the rest can’t do an honest days work and it looks like “CPE Credits for the County Sheriffs of Indiana” grift is just enriching the worst people. I can’t think of any other way to cut them off at this point than letting criminals run amok for a few years.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: The National Guard, let alone the regular military components, are not going to take part in this type of thing.
Mike in NC
Trump will scream tonight in Orlando that thousands of bad hombres are being rounded up at bayonet point, and the FOX News watching crowd will respond with a standing ovation. This rally will be a dress rehearsal for when he highjacks the Fourth of July celebration.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: So, dribbling the ball while juggling cane toads and baby crocodiles it is!
If you’re recording the Italy V Brazil game, around the 35 minute mark one of the Azuri players gets called for a foul, which to be honest, was not a bad call. Though not a great call. You have to watch her response. It is both classic and hysterical to watch.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: And we’ve reached the stage where the VAR could ruin another game.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I think Biden is right too, but only because the U.S. has been coasting for a few decades now on a time when prosperity was more broadly shared. We’ll either turn things around or we won’t. But if we don’t, the revolution phase will eventually arrive. I think that’s why that old crank Bernie performs well with the youngs. They know they’re screwed and are further along the “revolution” continuum that we Xers and Boomers.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Whoever wrote this shit can get right the fuck out of here.
trollhattan
Which terrapin just uttered this?
lurker dean
@Feathers: wow, your parents are good people.
Kent
@Adam L Silverman:
Exactly this. There are only two points to what Trump is doing as far as I can tell:
1. The cruelty. his base gets off on it. Punching immigrants is the new “hippie punching” that Nixon used to do.
2. Manufacturing a crisis. ICE has been making high profile arrests and deportations all over the country including backwaters where they never operated before, simply to raise the appearance of a crisis to arouse and enrage his base. It’s just another version of the Oct 2018 Caravan of Death.
Trump in no way actually wants to SOLVE the immigration crisis. He needs it because what else does he have to run on?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: They’re not supposed to be doing border cruelty either. And yet there they are.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: All true.
And yet, ICE will still do some round-ups, and both the GOP and its favorite Fair and Balanced channel will use the footage to try and reassure the Republican base that massive crackdowns are happening. They don’t have to actually DO much of anything…just enough for a few good film clips and tweets.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
It’s pretty sad if somebody considers this to be good advice.
Harris may need to find a Harriet Tubman move to keep these fools focused who think she is their enemy.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Running on the environmentally sustainable ticket? //
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Once you go Jewish…
(Honestly, there’s nothing that rhymes with that!)
Your presidential aspirations are, apparently, toast…
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I’m not sure having their time wasted tending to barbed wire counts as border cruelty.
Kylroy
@Adam L Silverman: In other words, they’d have to actually *do* something, and Hair Furor’s goons have been pretty bad at that. They could manage tax cuts because that is simply not collecting taxes, but anything that involves actual effort and coordination is largely beyond them.
Kent
@rikyrah: Oh FFS. Black men are going to swing to Trump in South Carolina because Harris was once worked as a prosecuter?
Just like the farm belt swung away from Trump because he was New York city slicker who never set foot on a farm in his life?
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I’m also opening a chain of all you can eat, BYOB (bring your own bodies) restaurants.
James E Powell
@rikyrah:
Pew Research showed a 17 point difference between African American women (98%) and men (81%) voting for Hillary Clinton. What – besides misogyny – would explain that huge gap?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
There has been reports of deliberate mission creep as more and more “non-combat” troops are being used for transportation, legal and medical services.
So not just barbed wires and tumbleweeds. Also, the detainment facilities are being moved to military bases last I heard.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m sure a diet of all white meat would get boring after awhile.
Brachiator
I don’t think that this is quite true.
Trump is a racist and a nationalist. He doesn’t care about the political downside. He has taken bigotry out of the sewers and backrooms and made it policy.
He has hurt immigrants. He is responsible for the deaths of children.
He has ordered tens of thousands of refugees living here in peace to leave the country.
He has shifted the argument on who should be allowed into this country to give preference to those who are white or wealthy.
These are some of the actions he has taken, even though the majority may not agree with him. He isn’t just mouthing off or deflecting attention elsewhere. Bigotry has been central to his agenda from the very beginning.
TenguPhule
Bannon and the Shit of State are gonna get us into a shooting war at this rate.
Kay
@Pealse:
We had one locally who was hired by the county commissioners to do “courthouse shooter situation” training (paraphrasing!) – an alert local reporter exposed the trainer as a fake veteran. I happen to know the reporter and he is a veteran so maybe he noticed the guy’s story was hinky. Very embarrassing for all concerned. He’s there covering the training and then ends up researching and writing a story about how the trainer is full of shit. Just beautiful.
I oppose all school shooter defense training when it comes up. It just feels like a burgeoning industry to me, and public schools don’t have enough money to waste any on gun nut grifters. The DeVos family push it, and that makes it per se bogus.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Relax.
CaseyL
@Adam L Silverman: There’s always mercs. Erik Prince has a few; I’m sure he’d be delighted.
Kent
@James E Powell:
Doesn’t have to be actual mysogyny. Generally speaking women dislike Trump more than men do. In fact we hear a lot about how he “triggers” women. Yet no one is talking about Hillary’s 98% voting margin among black women as being due to misandry against Trump. There was no doubt plenty of misogyny against Hillary in the 2016 election. I think that was well documented. But there are other factors that could account for this gap in black men and black women’s voting patterns.
In any event, I doubt that worries about the black “bubba” vote in rural South Carolina is not something a lot of Dem strategists are focusing on.
TenguPhule
Alabama man accused of feeding caged ‘attack squirrel’ meth
I see Florida Man decided to open a franchise business.
Ladyraxterinok
@TenguPhule: An all-American version of the Bataan Death
March?
Or from our own history a modern day Trail of Tears?
Trump can follow his idol Andrew Jackson
LuciaMia
Still doesnt say whether they got paid.
TenguPhule
Trump reportedly discussed firing Fed chair Jerome Powell over rate hikes
Every player on Wall Street betting on Trump’s economic stability is a fool.
TenguPhule
@Ladyraxterinok: We see an atrocity. They see a workable blueprint.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
Insanity?
According to 2012 exit polls, Obama got 96 percent of the black woman vote, and 87 percent of the black man vote.
I agree that there is sexism at play here as well, and also some class envy. Harris has a strong base of support from her college educated sorority sisters. The article referenced criticizing Harris emphasizes blue collar black men.
As an aside, had Obama been married to a white woman, there would have been more petty snipes at his candidacy.
TenguPhule
A reminder of just how far away from normal we’ve strayed in three years.
Major Major Major Major
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Weigel is a reporter, so I’m not sure why you’ve included him here.
TenguPhule
I don’t see any reasonable way to restore trust in the system after all these bad actors have gotten in.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: The other, other white meat.
TenguPhule
All of the Cheneys are pond scum only fit to clean toilets with their tongues.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
I think that you are absolutely right here. And yet the sad thing is that right wing pundits and conservative economists and business leaders soft pedal any criticism of Trump, and few will admit that he is incompetent when it comes to economic policy.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
Say it for the bleachers.
There were those of us in 2016, who never had the luxury to NOT take the man at his word…and, he said ALL OF THIS DURING THE CAMPAIGN.
Reminder: the clothes you take the local cleaners have a better tracking system than they have had with CHILDREN.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: And it doesn’t actually do any good. We have no empirical evidence to validate any of the active shooter response training. Whether for children or for adults.
SiubhanDuinne
(Tried to use one — ONE! — little Cyrillic character, was put into moderation. I have developed new levels of sympathy for zhena gogolia.)
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: And because they just moved Esper up to Acting SecDef, we’ve got an acting SecArmy inbound.
Joe Falco
It’s not just Trump that’s playing up the fear-mongering about the border recently. My local Congress critter, Jody Hice, heir to whackadoodle Paul Broun, held his phone-in “town hall” last week, and he started off on how unsecured the southern border was and how the drug cartels are operating carte blanche, etc. Republicans are going to ramp up these racist attacks on immigrants and asylum seekers and get more people killed as a result.
TenguPhule
Facebook launches cryptocurrency in bid to shake up global finance
Like we needed a new reason to hate Suckerberg?
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: It was this that I was referring to earlier.
Mnemosyne
If anyone knows of any legal immigrants who think they’ll be safe from ICE busting down their door, there are some folks in Great Britain who could tell you that being a legal immigrant with all of your papers in order is no protection against a government that wants you gone:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Is he legally barred from filling both positions at the same time?
Gravenstone
@TenguPhule: JUST.FUCKING.STOP. with the eliminationist fapping.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: The whole thread escalated pretty fast.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Still in moderation, even after deleting that one weird Cyrillic character.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I don’t know. But I do know it is not possible to do both jobs at the same time.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Of course Trump cares about political downside — there’s no worse fate for a malignant narcissist than to be exposed as a loser and a weakling. Losing an election would be an intolerable blow to Trump’s gigantic ego. That doesn’t mean he’d recognize a “political downside” if it jumped up and bit him in the nutsack, though. He’s mostly instinct without strategy or nuance, IMO.
The fact that Trump invariably cranks the bigotry up to 11 and rips off the knob when he feels vulnerable doesn’t mean he’s not sincerely a bigot. He’s a racist, sexist and xenophobe to the core no matter what the situation. But amping up the bigotry seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to threats because mouthing off on that topic gets the deplorables all excited, and Trump hoovers up their adulation like a meth head on a pipe.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: You’re not in moderation, I have no idea where your comment is.
Mnemosyne
@MattF:
Personally, I would lump “blame immigrants” under his “always lie all the time” tactics. As the Hoarse Whisperer says on Twitter, a narcissist is a simple machine with one function: protecting their core from being injured. They will do or say ANYTHING to protect their fragile core.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m not sure this is going to stop him.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
Yes, and this particular POS is headed for the senate unless Wyoming does something really unexpected.
She wears her evil with pride.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
It opened up as soon as I replied to it.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: Weird.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
If it’s a Trump Administration official, not doing two jobs is essentially the same as not doing one or the other.
raven
@Joe Falco: Are you in Athens?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Don’t give them ideas or else they’ll be turning those cages into the equivalent of lobster tanks at a seafood joint.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
If it were done well, would be an astounding feat of acting, if it were done well… I’ve got to assume it is done amazingly poorly ~!~
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: You’re right – and losing after one term would be even worse than if he had lost to Hillz in the first place. It’d be a historic disgrace for him.
Especially after all the “winning”
Especially with prison potentially awaiting him
tobie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: late to this thread but thought I’d add that the Beto twitterverse is furious that Beto was fifth in that Florida poll, tied with Kamala & also beating Trump, but was deleted from the reporting on it. Actually, I’m pissed too. Its gotten really tiresome to see a candidate who has issued a number of detailed and original policy proposals ignored or derided by the media.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: lol, an old classmate who I’ve grown to despise is one of the folks behind that. Dunno how he squares being a card-carrying DSA member with making cryptocurrencies for Facebook, nor do I care.
Jay
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/arctic-permafrost-thawing-early-1.5179760
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
I was originally replying to your restaurant chain post with a silly comment: Cannibals R Us. Except I wanted the R to face left, so I downloaded a Cyrillic keyboard for that singular letter. But just that one instance of foreign interference in our domestic Balloon Juicery was sufficient to put me in moderation. So I redacted the original comment and made a new comment about identifying with zhena gogolia, who has run into similar issues. But even with the deletion and edits, the revised comment was still in moderation. So I replied to that, and immediately it became unmoderated.
tl;dr FYWP
Mnemosyne
True story: until the end of WWII, the camps where Japanese Americans were sent to were officially referred to as “concentration camps.” It wasn’t until the world found out what the Nazis were up to with their concentration camps that the US started referring to them as “internment camps” to make it clear that, unlike the Nazis, we were merely falsely imprisoning our citizens on the basis of race, not wholesale murdering them.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know how the legal immigrants here don’t grasp it. …they should have a clue by now
Ohio Mom
@Feathers: Your parents are great people, they are clearly living their faith. It’s heartening to read about what they and their inter-faith group are doing.
But I can’t help but worry, what’s the Plan B — they are in their 80s, who is set-up to take the kids next in case they are called upon, this horror drags on, and their health starts failing?
Well, hopefully this all won’t happen. In the meantime, their promise is helping to ease the worst fears of a young family. That is a tremendous thing.
@rikyrah: I did not know Harris’s husband was Jewish. I’m imagining there’s some amount of cognitive dissonance among those of my co-religionists who kvell (Yiddish for “burst with pride”) when a Lieberman runs for VP or an Ivanka roams the halls of the White House (that is, right-wing leaning Jews).
They must be thinking, On one hand, the first First Gentleman could be one of us! On the other hand, look who would be President! (I’m snickering at this thought, this should come true and they should be so torn for eight years.)
Plato
@germy:
Low lifes, high places.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Testing, using HTML.
ᴙ
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: The immigrants I know understand the implications, but my sister (who works in healthcare) has at least two immigrant colleagues who are idiot Trump supporters who want to pull up the ladder. It’s truly unfathomable to me.
Joe Falco
@raven: Winder
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Once the comment is in moderation hell, it stays there until a Front Pager frees it. Taking out the “offensive” parts doesn’t take it out.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
Sorry to interfere with your Futbol games – but what does “FLEOTSC” stand for? Google is no help on this one.
FLeet OverTime Special Circumstances?
FLeet OverTime Special Circum-navagation? no, that would be FLEOTSCN
I give up…
The Dangerman
@Adam L Silverman:
“Your balls will never be bluish”
Hey, not much to work with here, and at least it gets the male vote.
I'll be Frank
It’s all just a distraction from the fact that the President is a Russian asset
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Betty Cracker: @Baud: Agreed re: Biden. Have you noticed that suicide rate is soaring among young people? My own 16 year is VERY cynical about her chances in life post-Cheeto Bandito. I think they are MUCH closer to a revolution mindset than us older folks. Not that I blame them…
tobie
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t encountered that attitude among immigrants in person but was shocked how often I spoke to immigrants while phone banking in 2018 who had no sympathy for kids being separated from their parents. Talk about the “I’ve got mine” attitude.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: If (please FSM) he loses, he’ll have to pretend it was because millions of “illegal aliens” committed voter fraud or something. He won’t be able to admit to himself — let alone anyone else — that he lost fair and square, no matter if it’s a 50-state landslide. I would expect him to either refuse to concede at all or use the concession speech time to call for an armed insurrection / restoration. I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. I can’t even imagine that piece of shit issuing even the most grudging concession speech and cooperating in a peaceful transfer of power.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
There are always a few who think that they’re the “right” kind of immigrant and it’s only the “wrong” kind who will be victimized. Just like how Kushner and Miller are convinced that they’re the “right” kind of Jews and therefore will be protected by their white supremacist buddies.
Jay
Ya know, somebody could share the pain.
Wouldn’t take a lot of money to buy a couple schoolbuss, install bars on the windows, paint it black, add ICE in white letters, add in 4 black Suburbans, buy some black windbreakers and get them silkscreened.
Go around some of those rural gated communities in the early evening, cut the phone lines and fire up a cellphone jammer, round up everybody with out a current passport or green card, on them,
Load them up on a cargo flight, filed as auto parts, dump them in a Mexican desert. Just check the voting history first.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Adam L Silverman: …, you never go back to blue fish?
That’s all I got.
Fair Economist
@TenguPhule: It’s too bad for Trump that Janet Yellen, the most dovish Fed Chair since at least the 70’s, is gone.
Because he fired her!
Another example of how Trump is so incompetent he couldn’t organize a 2 car funeral procession.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
The longer he squats in office, the more convinced he becomes that he’s invincible. And the Republicans’ ass-kissing only convinces him further.
IMO, the proof that there is no just and benevolent God is that Mitch McConnell has not yet suffered a massive heart attack or stroke for his sins.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
What about a figurehead for both jobs, as opposed to actually doing them? Seems to be what Trump prefers, actually…
guachi
“Speak bigly and carry a small dick”
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Life becomes Nuish.
;)
Betty Cracker
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: I don’t blame them either! My daughter — then 18 — cast her first vote in 2016, and we watched the returns with several of her friends, including two who are in DACA. It was as awful and heartbreaking as you can imagine, but as horrified as we all were, the kids weren’t as surprised as I was. They understood this country better than I did.
mrmoshpotato
@Mnemosyne:
Or been eaten by a massive, fascist turtle.
NotMax
@Fair Economist
Not fired. Technically, he refused to renominate her at the end of her term. One main reason was he thinks she’s too short. Really.
raven
@Joe Falco: Ah, up to Barrow County! I’m in Normaltown!
Sab
(Being a Luddite, I can’t to links.)
Connie Schultz on this:
“So many ask what can we do?” Bring daily pressure on your senators and representatives. Daily. Build it into your schedules. Daily. Do it in the company of supportive relatives, friends or activists, if that helps keep you on task. Daily. “They don’t care” is not a strategy.
She is married to a senator who previously was a representative. She knows what she is talking about.
I have my senators and congressman on speed-dial from the ACA showdowns. There is no reason I cannot be calling them daily now. Sherrod Brown obviously doesn’t need a push (he’s married to Connie Schultz. Tim Ryan probably does, and Rob Portman needs a hard shove.
The executive branch is being monstrous, in violation of our treaty obligations, or internal laws, and just decency.
Let them know we are watching and we do care. We had mass protests last summer. This summer we just seem to be whining on the internet while a lot of people are being very badly hurt.
We did it to protect ourselves over healthcare. Time to do it for others over immigration, asylum and children in concentration camps in our name.
Hoodie
@Mnemosyne: These recent polls showing him losing to specific democratic candidates has to be chafing his core. One reason he may be resorting to the immigration hustle to protect his fragile ego is that racism/xenophobia is his one true mission. He doesn’t seem to have any other ideological commitments or, rather, his other ideological commitments are all highly contingent. For example, he’s now against abortion, but 10 years ago he wasn’t, which is easy for him to do because he really doesn’t give a shit either way. But he’s always been a committed racist/xenophobe, going back to NY in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s also consistent with his narcissism, as it’s tied to his own perception of his inherent superiority of himself and his mediocre offspring.
Betty Cracker
@Hoodie: I would add misogyny to the list but otherwise agree.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t care much about his “concession” speech. It’d be the usual word salad of lies, incoherence, whining, blaming, excuses, sniffing, and bragging, with a side of how terrible everything’s going to be from now on.
But as you say, that’s assuming — a big assumption — that he would even remotely accept the results of a Dem win. I’m a lot more concerned about what the transition would be like. I mean, it was a total clusterfucked goat rodeo of disorganization during the 2016-17 transition, and Trump WON that one and the Obama team couldn’t have been more professional and helpful. I can’t even begin to imagine the level of sabotage, misinformation, withheld documents, and general fuckery from Trump and whichever of his minions are still there in 18 months. I feel genuinely sorry for what the new President-elect is going to have to deal with starting on her first day.
schrodingers_cat
I used to read The Daily Dish during W’s presidency. I remember, Sully complaining non-stop about the unfairness of immigration laws which barred him from getting the Green Card due to his HIV+ status*. Every other week it was how immigrants make America vibrant, etc.
And now that he is a citizen, he has become a restrictionista. Fucking hypocrite.
ETA: This was changed during Obama’s presidency IIRC.
Mike in NC
@J R in WV: 20 years ago I was a contractor in DC at what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Lots of documents referenced the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Georgia. This must be a newer name.
Jay
Raven Onthill
“DHS is planning to target “families” as part of stepped up effort to deport undocumented immigrants, a senior admin official told me, in response to Trump’s tweet last night. But the official said there are ‘not a lot of happy faces’ at DHS, as Trump revealed plans in the works.” – Jim Acosta, https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1141001638565621761
@Adam L Silverman: “We don’t have enough Customs & Border Patrol officers, we don’t have enough Immigration & Customs Enforcement officers, we don’t have enough US Customs and Immigration Services personnel.”
If some local police and paramilitaries join in, would that be enough? It sounds like DHS is working on an updated version of Kristallnacht. The one good thing I can see about this is that support for our immigrants is broader and deeper than that for Jews in Nazi Germany.
And…I just got a spam call from the American Law Enforcement United Alliance (ALEUA), a dark money pro-police PAC. They are a project of something called “Security in America,” also a dark money PAC. Literally just, while I was getting ready to sign this comment.
WhatsMyNym
U.S. seizes 16.5 tons of cocaine from ship in Philadelphia
I didn’t know the southern border went so far NE?!?
rikyrah
@Feathers:
Just reading the story ???
schrodingers_cat
@Feathers: She should talk to lawyer and not presume anything.
Raven Onthill
In other news, AOC called the concentration camps concentration camps on Twitter. Liz Cheney (!) wrote to disagree, objecting, “6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this.” The conservative never-Trumpers, Tom Nichols, Max Boot and the like, are Very Concerned.
“If, in the course of defending your political positions, you find yourself clarifying that you only support *concentration* camps, not *death* camps, I feel like maybe you ought take that as an occasion to rethink some things.” – David Roberts of Vox, https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1141057521945202688
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
In case you might care to make a note of it for future reference, the HTML code for a small cap reversed R is as follows (omit the spaces, to work it must be typed in one unbroken string):
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
Allan “My Son the Folksinger” Sherman managed a rhyme in Sir Greenbaum:
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Testing.
ᴙ
Edit: It works! Thanks!
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
But apparently my replying to my own moderated comment did free it. Or so it would seem.
One of these times, I’m going to test that theory.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
OK. I see your point here. Yes, Trump cares about the political downside to the extent that it affects his ego. But I still don’t think that it shades political calculations as it would a more conventional politician, precisely because he is, as you note, “mostly instinct without strategy or nuance.”
Again, here we disagree that he cranks up the bigotry. Bannon and Miller were part of his team early. Trump has consistently and relentlessly looked for ways to rid the country of undesirable people and to prevent others from ever coming in the first place.
There are certain policies that he keeps coming back to, no matter what is happening in the media or the political realm.
And again, it is not just that Trump is sincerely a bigot. It is that he actively seeks to implement policies to purify America of people that he thinks have no right to live here. This is not incidental to his administration. It is fundamental to it. In this, he is the most openly racist president since Woodrow Wilson.
debbie
With a background in sales, I tend to round up, but this is ridiculous.
West of the Rockies
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh, don’t be do shrewish!
mrmoshpotato
@WhatsMyNym: What’s Cocaine Mitch doing in Philly? (It would be irresponsible not to speculate.)
TenguPhule
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator:
This has been obvious since the day he announced his run for Presidency.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Full seᴙvice blog.
:)
trollhattan
Bucket, meet drop.
Jay
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-maintenance-specialrepor/special-report-air-force-landlord-falsified-records-to-boost-income-records-show-idUSKCN1TJ18E
jl
@Brachiator: I have no doubt that Trump is a bigot, sexist, racist and xenophobe to the marrow of his bones (edit: though less so if he personally deals with anyone of those classes who is rich, see below). But not sure whether Trump is the kind who wants to crank it up to 11 in terms of policy.
Remember that when Wall was first suggested as a campaign gimmick by two of his cronies, he thought it was a stupid idea and didn’t care that much about it. Trump really got behind it after it was a big hit that brought wild cheers at his rallies. And then, he did not push any Wall very much during the first two years of his term when he actually had power in Congress to fund it.
And there is an interview he did with Bannon, where Bannon complained about lots of immigrant CEOs and investors in Silicon Valley being a danger to the American Way and Culture, and the US ‘meritocracy’. Trump was puzzled and said more or less ‘But, hey, those are mostly rich people, you know. What’s wrong with having more rich people?’
I think we know Trump is deeply bigoted personally. Not sure he sees the need to push it into crappy draconian policies. May be he just doesn’t care that much about it on a social level, or he just doesn’t have the mental focus or attention span to push his personal bigotry into policy.
I do think Trump’s first priority is how his rabid base responds to his moves. Everything else is secondary.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator:
We’re talking past each other. Yes to all of that and all the previous content you posted about what a bigot Trump is. Stipulated. Understood. Of course. Duh. The question is whether Trump ramps up the anti-immigrant rhetoric in response to perceived threats. I think there’s a clear pattern that he does. You apparently disagree. That’s okay.
jl
@Betty Cracker: As my previous comment indicates, I think Trump ramps it up in terms of horrible policy if he sees it will be a big hit with his supporters. At least initially. Then because, as Larry Wilmore said, Trump is the kind of guy who thinks something is true because he just heard himself say it, his statements carry him off into his own reality.
So, I think that the Millers, Bannons, etc. are main drivers of horrible policy, not Trump. But they play on his deep personal bigotry, and his craving for adulation from his fans, and they know how to drive him into his personal drama queen mode.
I think that makes Trump just as horrible as he would be if he did have a personal passion for cruel draconian policy, except just as bad in a different way than the Millers and the Bannons.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
I *think* he realizes it’s too early for him to roll out “They’re coming for your beautiful, innocent, pure daughters.” But wouldn’t lay folding money on it.
Also (probably) too early for him to burn Pelosi in effigy.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: 20,000 housing units in the Bay Area is actually a BFD.
trollhattan
On this hallowed campaign even kickoff, a dedication.
NotMax
@trollhattan
In Googletown, neighborhood watches you.
;)
schrodingers_cat
@jl: T chose them for a reason. It was no accident.
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV: Federal Law Enforcement Officer Training School. The acronym is pronounced: floatsee.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
My phone just told my house to kick me outside to exercise. It’ll handle the shopping itself.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC: No I just mangled the acronym.
NotMax
@trollhattan
“Hey you, hoo-mon. Want to go walkies?”
;)
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, so they think that they are “Special”??
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Don’t ya love a smart home?
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: “You don’t own me! I’m my own house!” yelled your own house at you through Google Home.
trollhattan
@NotMax: @?BillinGlendaleCA:
Home sweet l’homme.
Kathleen
@MattF:
.
I’m interested in knowing why you think the media have noticed. I avoid “news” and “talk” shows (except for local news) so I’m curious about what changes you’ve observed.
Ohio Mom
@Jay: I think there are some minor problems with your plan, starting with it’s against the law both to impersonate an officer and to kidnap people. But other than that, it’s not any more far-fetched than some of my thoughts over the years concerning my mother-in-law.
@Raven Onthill: One of my pet peeves is when people refer to only the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis; leaving out the five million others who were killed alongside always strikes me as a perverse sort of Holocaust denial.
If anyone wants to cry, Never Again, the only response is, Oops, we ARE doing it again, those ARE concentration camps. I consider it an insult to my murdered relatives to see concentration camps in operation again.
@Sab: I love Connie Schultz. I know all the arguments for Sherrod not running for President but I think she would have been a terrific First Lady, up there with Michelle.
@SiubhanDuinne: I also love Allan Sherman. We had all his albums growing up, somehow or other someone thought they should be tossed. Along with all the old MAD Magazines!
And now I’m all caught up,time for supper.
NotMax
Down Florida way, another nutball reveals his true colors: Colleagues Condemn FL GOPer Who Posted About Running Over Trump Protesters.
Kathleen
@JAF Rusty Shackleford: I am so sorry that you and your family have to endure this. Holding your family (and families of all targeted groups) in the light.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I am filled with gᴙattitude!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@matt: Concentration Camps were first used by the British during the Boar War to “concentrate” the dispersed rural population to prevent Boar guerrillas for getting support. The bad rep was because sticking a bunch of farmers together in a tent city with poor sanitation resulted in widespread disease. Then of course the Germans in ’30 and ’40s.
A Ghost To Most
@JAF Rusty Shackleford:
Symptom vs the disease.
Chris T.
@Adam L Silverman:
Bluish?
Adam L Silverman
@Chris T.: Let me clarify: there’s nothing that rhymes with it in a way that is usable for double entendres.
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
Once you go Hebrew, there’s nothing else you want to do.
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
Militia’s are doing it in the desert, with out much consequence,
Why not our own, but in the redneck gated communities, Purdue and Smithfield Headquarters,……
And as long as we ain’t flashing badges, we’re just a tribute group to a has been whipple rapper.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Sadly, I think that some people don’t get it, but this thread has been helpful in highlighting the issue.
I think that many (not all by any means) get hung up on whether Trump is a racist. They look at Trump’s actions for signs of political opportunism.
Most non-white people are concerned that Trump will try to destroy them while the rest of the country passively sit back and watch.
Feathers
@Ohio Mom: @schrodingers_cat: @lurker dean: @rikyrah:
Thanks. Stepped away, wanted to comment. There have been lawyers consulted. Part of the issue is that ICE is grabbing people in court, so far she is under the radar. My sister is in her late 40s and her kids are about to leave for college. She’s been involved in all of this. A big part of the issue is just making sure that the father doesn’t get custody of them. He hasn’t shown any interest, but even the thought of it terrifies her. My parents have been involved, taking the kids on vacation with their grandchildren, being authorized to pick them up at school if Mom can’t make it for several years now. The father has been completely out of the picture for almost all of the youngest’s life. I’m not privy to everything, but my guess is that there is a plan in place and favors which may be called in should it become necessary.
Annie
@Adam L Silverman:
I work for a government agency in California, and the California Highway Patrol has held 2 active shooter training sessions for us. Both times, the officers said quite bluntly that active shooting situations were so unpredictable that they did not really know what to tell us that would work. (What they did say: first option is to get away. Second is to hide. Third is to try to fight. And call 911 as soon as you can.)
Brachiator
@jl:
Please see my comment 220 for more on this. It is not just that Trump is a racist, it is that he acts on his racism and is actively making it national policy.
I keep seeing people say this, and I really find it puzzling. It’s not as if these guys wandered into the White House and set up shop. They represent a noxious nativism that has been around for decades. And one thing that we have clearly seen is that Trump will shrug off and abandon ideas and people that he doesn’t like.
This is easily refuted. His base is against illegal immigration, and hated the Republican elite from being weak on this issue. But I don’t think that very many people anywhere gave a thought about refugees quietly living in this country. And I don’t think that the average citizen gave much thought to the issue of birthright citizenship.
But it was Trump who decided to throw people out of the country. It is Trump, not his base, who has an obsession with the distinction between citizens and non-citizens.
And most of all, Trump is not simply looking at how his base responds. He is selling nativism to them, and by example telling them that it is acceptable to be racist again, because that is part of what makes America great.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
Trump would, if he know how to work a gun, which he doesn’t. Why no one has been shot crossing 5th Avenue !!!
Kay-wren
@Adam L Silverman: actually I grew up on St Simons, just off the mainland from Brunswick, where FLETC is located, and we always pronounced it Flet-C
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Upper caste folks in India try to minimize Modi’s viciousness too. They are giving themselves an out by making excuses by making excuses for the tyrant.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks for this insight. This aspect doesn’t get covered in the news about Modi and India.