Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

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

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

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

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

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

The revolution will be supervised.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Bark louder, little dog.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: RESIST

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: RESIST

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  2. 2.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Hoesch is right, except that I do not think public shaming will make Trump back down on this issue. His staff backed down last time. The cure for tariffs being unpopular is more tariffs. The cure for cruelty to brown people being unpopular is more cruelty to brown people. I suspect the same about women, he just hasn’t entered that spiral. These are his ideals, likely the only ones he has. Trump does not just want these these things, he believes in them. They are his version of ‘conservatism cannot fail, only be failed.’

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    My two senators and House rep are all Trump-humping shitheads. I called yesterday and registered my opposition to this atrocity, and I will do so again today, not that it’ll do any fucking good. Goddamn, I hate these people with the white hot heat of 10K exploding supernovas.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yes, Trump has “entered that spiral” with women by attacking reproductive healthcare at every turn, and just yesterday, he dismissed a rape allegation by saying the victim wasn’t his type.

  6. 6.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Oh, and Trump actively liking concentration camps and wanting his own: More fuel for my theory Trump considers himself a Nazi.

  9. 9.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Betty Cracker:
    He has been anti-women and hurt women in his policies. He hates women. However, I don’t think he has gotten enough public shaming to respond by continuously upping the ante, like he has with immigrants. Mainly, the pundits on television who filter his perception of public opinion also hate women and don’t think attacking reproductive rights is interesting enough to make an issue about.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Beginning researching Things To Do during NY trip. Broadway/Off Broadway = slim pickings this year for this old fart. Only thing which piques interest on first glance is Drunk Shakespeare.

  11. 11.

    Patricia Kayden

    Mass protests throughout the country may be what’s needed to let his regime know that we’re not good with what he’s doing to children. I believe that protests are being organized for July 12th.

  12. 12.

    Lapassionara

    I’ve heard the government is paying the private contractor running the camps over $700 per person per night. If true, someone is making a boatload of money tormenting the children.

  13. 13.

    Quinerly

    St. Louis meet up starts at 5:00pm Thurs at McGurks in Soulard to welcome opiejeanne. Looks like we will have 6-8 people. Certainly room for more. Join us if in the area!

  14. 14.

    satby

    Keep calling them concentration camps, it upsets and triggers the deplorables. Besides being an accurate description of what’s happening. I’m hoping the two dimwits from my childhood who still “friend” me on FB block me after trying to argue about that designation today. I had shared Adam’s post from last night, and the troglodytes are unhappy because they have to try to defend the indefensible.
    P.S. FB buddies, feel free to weigh in on the thread ?

  15. 15.

    MJS

    @NotMax: Try a place called Don’t Tell Mama. In the theater district, with really talented singers who have been (or want to be) on Broadway (who also function as servers). A really fun place.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Colbert showed a clip of Trump’s threatening (without saying it) media’s reporting of his sexual predation. I hope, really hope, they don’t back down.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    @Lapassionara: In both Florida and Texas, a huge private prisons contractor, GEO Group, is making boatloads of money in the detainee business. Coincidentally [wink-wink], the company is a HUGE donor to Republican candidates. In FL, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis all received large donations, and I am sure their counterparts in Texas did as well.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Next time just tell them to google concentration camp definition..

    con·cen·tra·tion camp
    /ˌkänsənˈtrāSHən ˈˌkamp/
    noun
    plural noun: concentration camps

    a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution.

    Not your job to educate them.

  20. 20.

    Butch

    A serious even if maybe dumb question….my “representative” is Jack Bergman, who is easily one of the most useless Republicans in Congress. I’ll call or at least e-mail, but what do I say that stands the slightest chance of getting through to him? Does anyone have a suggested script?

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    About two dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault/harassment. Has anyone in Congress invited them to testify?

  22. 22.

    Mike in DC

    Honestly, with the cruelty to children, the abortion bans and the rapey stuff, peeling off suburban white women this go around should be like taking candy from a baby(and replacing it with something tasty but healthy…we’re not monsters!)

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Butch: I’ll see your Jack Bergman and raise you one Jason Smith. Suggestion:

    Names:
    Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle, 10
    Jaakelin Caal Maquin, 7
    Felipe Gómez Alonzo, 8
    Juan de León Gutiérrez, 16
    Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, 2
    Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez, 16

    Tell them you’ll be happy to come down and staple them to their foreheads so that everytime they look in the mirror, they will know who to blame for these deaths.

    As that website notes:

    For a decade, not one migrant child died in U.S. government custody.
    Since September, at least six children have died in the custody of either DHS or HHS.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: In the “Books” section, which is like covering the Dahmer trial in the “Food” section, and two days after the story broke. Can someone explain to me why Dean Baquet still has a job?

  33. 33.

    gene108

    @satby:

    They are evil by condoning this evil. Their arguments are superficial or flat out wrong. “They should come here legally” or “You are supposed to apply for asylum before you come here”.

    People break laws all the time. We don’t treat mass murderers as badly as we are treating these children.

    Bush, Jr. and Company really fractured this country in, what seems to be, an irreparable way. We were united after 9/11/01. And through their lies to get us into war in Iraq, and their media enablers declaring anyone not supporting Bush & Co. as hating America, whatever ability for this country to feel collective outrage disappeared. Republicans, taking cues from their racist base and right-wing media, drove deeper fractures into our society during Obama’s presidency.

    I really don’t know how we or when we will be able to recover.

  34. 34.

    rikyrah

    I do wish that a Front Pager would put up the interview in question.

    Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) Tweeted:
    Had a conversation with my mom after she saw @chrislhayes basically pleading with that goddamn Republican to end the suffering of children at the hands of this administration.
    People with voice and opportunity are saying the things. These @realDonaldTrump people just don’t care. https://twitter.com/ElieNYC/status/1143354611845214210?s=17

  36. 36.

    BlueDWarrior

    This is how Republicans are allowed to let their both passive and active evil flourish, by manipulating news editors and anchors into setting the terms of debate.

    These camps fit the definition of all the 3 terms you want to use – internment, detention, and concentration camp. But they know that last term is especially ‘triggering’ because of it’s close association with Nazi Germany and other similar diabolic regimes.

    And let no one ever forget, there is a significant enough minority in this country that’d really like to execute a pogrom to “Bleach America White Again”…

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    @rikyrah:

    I will never forget, either. This is the main reason why I am not for Biden. I think he would be part of this group.???

    Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) Tweeted:
    All I can promise is that, when the wheel turns, I won’t forget what they’ve done. Many will. Many will try to go back to “normal” with these people. I will not. Not forgetting, and not letting them forget what they’ve done, will be the very least I can do. https://twitter.com/ElieNYC/status/1143356240145321984?s=17

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I’m pretty sure by now a whole bunch of them can see how wrong they were, getting them to admit it on the other hand… Not even to themselves.

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    1. I believe that the number of deaths has been lowballed.
    2. It’s about to turn hot hot hot in Texas.
    3. More are sure to die because of the heat and the horrendous conditions.
    4. I am waiting for mass graves to be revealed.

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    @satby:
    I agree.
    They are concentration camps.

    And, if you can point out that Anne Frank didn’t die in the ovens, but because of the unsanitary conditions…

  43. 43.

    gene108

    @rikyrah:

    Trump and his minions need to see jail time. This won’t deter Republicans at all. They will use it as an excuse to prosecute criminally Democrats, at every level. But there’s no looking forward after Trump. We need to look back, and hold people accountable

  45. 45.

    Kay

    Maggie Haberman
    ‏Verified account
    @maggieNYT
    7h7 hours ago
    More
    A New Trump Order May Make More Health Care Prices Public – The New York Times

    It’s an executive order calling for the start of a rule-making process. In several years, depending on the rule change, it could or could not result in some change, or no change at all. Trump said last week that he was starting a campaign to pretend they were doing something on healthcare, so I guess this is the first stunt.
    The funniest part is the picture. The low quality hires put him on an elevated podium in the middle of a group of people, so he towers over them.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    @Lapassionara:

    $775 a day

    And the government is arguing that they can’t have soap, toothpaste, hot meals and a place to sleep.

    That babies can’t have clean diapers.
    And have the phucking nerve to turn away groups that show up with those supplies ??

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @gene108: I think about this a lot, trying to figure out exactly when the GOP broke America. They cranked up the jingoistic bullshit and ripped off the knob after 9/11, it’s true. But Nixon had the Southern Strategy. Reagan launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, MS, talking about “states rights,” popularized noxious stereotypes about “welfare queens,” and explicitly invited the radical clerics of the so-called Moral Majority into the party with a “let’s oppress gays some more and put women back in their place” agenda. Bush I and the Willie Horton ad, etc. They’ve been evil fuckers as long as I’ve been alive.

  53. 53.

    Lapassionara

    @rikyrah: what a complete horror. I want to find out the names of the people running that company. If it is publically traded, that information is available somewhere.

  56. 56.

    Percysowner

    Contacted my Rethug Senator Rob Portman, this weekend. Appealed to his (non-existent) sense of decency and called on his purported care for the lives of chlldren (unborn ones only). I did it as a opening gambit, because my father always went with you catch more files with honey than vinegar and because starting by calling him an unfeeling, hypocritical SOB seemed like a good way to get ignored. I’m going to step it up today AND let my Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and my Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty know that I want them working on this as well .

  57. 57.

    Baud

    Put down the pitchforks, guys. We’re in good hands now.

    First lady Melania Trump on Monday announced new Be Best ambassadors to help “improve the lives of children,” at the same time as the Trump administration continues to receive heavy criticism for the conditions that migrant children face in border detention facilities.

    A White House press release stated that Trump was expanding her signature Be Best initiative aimed at helping children, with 21 ambassadors from agencies within the administration that will serve as liaisons with the East Wing.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: I like Willis and think O’Rourke’s war tax proposal is a terrible idea, but that’s a dumb tweet. It’s a crowded field, and candidates are trying to demonstrate they’re the best person for the job with policy ideas. It’s not “the left being way too clever” — it’s a primary race. Sheesh.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    Nixon had the Southern Strategy.

    DING DING DING… That was when they went over to the darkside, fully embracing America’s original sin for political advantage. Now, it owns them.

  60. 60.

    Lapassionara

    @Lapassionara: well, so I googled the GEO Group. I’m old and a Luddite so I can’t link, but what a joke! They have a mission and value statement that makes them sound like paragons of virtue. HQ in Boca Raton. I’m hoping some resisters there will start some demonstrations outside their building, which I envision being the height of taste.

  61. 61.

    plato

    I saw fucking dancing dave on cnn today pleading learned helplessness on how to call out the rapist thug and how the people have accepted ‘it as normal’. What a cowardly corrupt asshole posing as a journo.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The ambassadors will “help further the First Lady’s goal of educating children and parents about the issues they face,”

    They can’t write a simple sentence. The ambassadors will educate children and parents about the issues children and parents face? The children and parents don’t know about the issues they face? They’re sending ambassadors from the White House to children and parents, to let them know they’re facing issues.

    Maybe “they” means the Trump Administration. In that case they’re sending ambassadors from the White House to children to let children know the issues the Trump Administration faces. Which with these people is entirely possible.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    The children and parents don’t know about the issues they face? 

    It’s possible that there are a few remaining stragglers out there who don’t understand that Democrats are to blame for all their problems.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @plato:

    Don’t they have a playbook on how to cover this? The other men who lost their jobs/careers over sexual assault/harassment?

    Why hold Trump out as the singular exception? I mean, they have taken credit for changing the public perception of this with high-profile coverage of rapists and sexual harrassment in the entertainment industry. It’s disqualifying if you’re a comedian or movie producer but not if you’re president?

    I have an idea! They could cover it the way they cover Joe Biden’s excessive handsiness! That’s a politician example for them.

  68. 68.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: these Amassadors, if I understand correctly, are all agency flacks. There job is to be ambassadors to their own agency to think of ways maybe their agency can help the First Lady “educat(e) children and parents (regarding?) the issues they face.” It is entirely an internal Trump admin. discussion. These Ambassadors are not going out into the world to do anything.

    Meanwhile, I wonder if DHS is sending an embed Ambassador?

  69. 69.

    plato

    @Kay: As I said, it’s all learned helplessness when it comes to covering this thug. Cowardly assholes.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s so much a part of how we think and react, the idea that we serve markets and not the other way around. I was talking to a younger male lawyer yesterday about how he and his wife will take two 12 week leaves consecutively when they have their baby in January. I think this is a great idea. A (female) lawyer who is my age jumped in “that’s that millennial thing– remember when we had to juggle the baby while taking phone calls?”
    I don’t want her putting me in the “martyr to markets” category. I’m not the ambassador for that. There was nothing great about going back to work immediately after having a baby and if younger people are changing that, good for them. Bravo. Thank God we finally have a group of people who haven’t been indoctrinated into fucked up priorities from birth. I wish they had 6 months leave available, each. It’s such a short period, babyhood. They really can’t have a year to do it properly? Christ. we give them 4 years for college.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: If the people who work at the White House comms shop weren’t all so monumentally incompetent, I’d suspect they were trolling us. But I’m pretty convinced it’s just ineptitude. I’ve yet to see a White House press release that wasn’t riddled with enough egregious grammatical and syntax errors to get a sophomore comms major bounced from an unpaid internship. As you say, low quality hires!

  72. 72.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    Don’t they have a playbook on how to cover this? The other men who lost their jobs/careers over sexual assault/harassment?

    Yes. That playbook traditionally is to shrug if it’s a Republican and if they do report it, frame that as Democrats playing politics. If it’s a Democrat, of course, it’s scandal city if they so much as try and fail to have an affair. Consider the misogyny revealed in the media by 2016 and #MeToo, and none of that will be any surprise. They don’t consider rape a serious crime.

    On the actual political side, the Republican Party, elected and base, made it clear they have had it with liberals pretending rape is worse than a peccadillo, and swear to God, they will lose their shit if Democrats try to hang it on one of their’s heads again.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    It’s not like they had to invent this. They can’t even get the direction of the discussion right. The children and families tell the Trump Administration what the issues are and the Trump Administration makes them aware of what’s available. Melania doesn’t tell THEM what their issues are! That’s not right. These are the people she hires, too, the Be Best marketers. She has her own staff. I see she can pick ’em just like her husband.

  74. 74.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Baud: I am pettily pleased that Vogue has refused to put Melania on the cover, despite pressure from the WH.

    OT: Personal whine. OMG, my meds have turned my digestive system to slush. I’m calling the cardiologist today and begging for him to do something.

  77. 77.

    Kathleen

    @Butch: My congressman is Steve Chabot Ohio First) and I sent email and called using script from email I received from a Human Rights organization. If I were at home I would post my email but I think the key is to have specific “asks”. In my case Zthe email I got suggested 1. Proper funding and resources at Detention Centers (I saw comment here yesterday with a specific HR number that’s working it’s way thru Congress) and 2.
    hearings and oversight to hold people accountable for abuses.
    I also asked him to justify his support for an administration that created these abuses when he proclaims he supports Right To Life . I then asked him if he would want his children or grandchildren to be subjected to abuse and how would he answer them when they asked what did he do to stop abuse.
    Don’t know if that helps.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    “In my day, we had a lower standard of living and less personal happiness, and we liked it.”

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    They had Ivanka out promoting an apprenticeship that was launched and funded with the Obama stimulus the other day as something SHE did. Seimens. They didn’t even bother to google where she was going. Obama created the whole thing. The crack twitter team were ON it, immediately, and they’re volunteers! :)

    Maybe they loathe the family and intentionally make them look like idiots. Probably not, they’re probably just bad at their jobs, but it would be great if they were doing that.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Ugh. That whole thing with women my age. “I went back to work in 36 hours!”

    So-like an agrarian peasant in the 15th century? You’re bragging about this? My God, why?

  83. 83.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:
    One major example of an abuser’s thought process, damn near universal on the Republican side and far from absent on the Democrat side, is “No one should have it better than me.” People have their personal exceptions, because conservatives like to choose who suffers, but that’s the general rule.

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    Good morning.

    Relatedly, RollCall:

    Swift passage [ passing a bill quickly is what’s important?? ] of billions of dollars in emergency aid to help care for tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants, many of them children, was in doubt Monday night as House Democrats were facing a possible revolt and a lone Republican senator was holding up action across the Capitol.

    Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus made their concerns known to Speaker Nancy Pelosi about their chamber’s $4.5 billion package that leaders wanted to put on the floor Tuesday.

    Progressive and Hispanic caucus members were meeting with leadership in Pelosi’s office late Monday on the bill. Leaving the meeting, New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Luján said the plan was to bring the measure up for a vote Tuesday. But that timetable didn’t seem set in stone, and additional changes were being sought to appease wavering Democrats.

    Party unity on the supplemental is especially important because the White House issued a veto threat on the House Democrats’ bill Monday evening, and Republicans aren’t expected to support it.

    […]

    Democratic Reps. Raul Ruiz of California and Adriano Espaillat of New York said they were seeking to add provisions from Ruiz’s bill that would place much more restrictive standards on Customs and Border Protection for ensuring the safety of children while they are in its custody.

    “We have to continue with the urgency and not kid ourselves that the humanitarian needs will be fulfilled. The items that they will need will be supplied. But the standards that will dictate how to use them in a humane way is yet to come,” Ruiz said.

    Some of the uncertainty about changes is because the spending bill may not be the appropriate vehicle for some of the language members are seeking.

    “There are some policies that are not germane to a supplemental bill. And people need to understand that, and that is the type of discussion that is happening,” New York Democratic Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez said.

    Emerging from Pelosi’s office around 10:30 p.m. Monday, House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern said the path forward remained unclear. “I think it’s still a work in progress, let’s put it that way,” the Massachusetts Democrat said.

    Later after reconvening the Rules panel briefly, McGovern said changes to the supplemental would be discussed into the night. He said that he hoped some decisions would be reached before the morning, and that he’d schedule another panel meeting for sometime after 10 a.m. Tuesday to consider the border funding measure.

    […]

    Even if leaders in both chambers can circumvent objections and pass their separate versions, it’s not clear that House-Senate differences can be resolved before lawmakers leave town for the recess.

    Shelby said if whatever versions pass each chamber can be reconciled through pre-conferencing between House and Senate leaders, a drawn-out formal conference committee could be avoided. He said he has not yet begun those discussions with Lowey himself, though Shelby said talks have begun at the staff level.

    However, a House Democratic aide said the chamber is “focused on passing the House bill, and there has been no discussion of reconciling bills or pre-conferencing at any level.”

    More at the link.

    Drum:

    […]

    Under normal circumstances, it might be best to pass the bill quickly and hope for the best. But Donald Trump has made it clear that he considers congressional appropriations to be mere suggestions, giving him the authority to “reprogram” the money any way he chooses. It’s hardly surprising that Democrats don’t trust him after watching him rip up Pentagon funding to build his wall.

    On this one, I’m with AOC. Her politics aren’t entirely mine, but her instinctive understanding of how to deal with people like Trump is unrivaled. “I will not fund another dime to allow ICE to continue its manipulative tactics,” she said earlier this evening, and I agree. Democrats should put reasonable restrictions into the legislative language and then dare Trump to veto it. The hostage-taking approach to politics won’t stop until it’s crystal clear that it will never, ever work.

    The appalling part of this, of course, is that it requires us to grit our teeth and allow Republicans to continue their usual callous treatment of the weak unless they agree to spend the money the way it’s supposed to be spent. But there’s no choice. McConnell and Trump are counting on bleeding-heart liberals to be patsies. They have to learn that we won’t be.

    Yeahbut…

    It’s the nature of the legislative process to never get everything you want. And words on the page won’t stop Donnie from trying to do whatever he wants. But it is important to fight for the best bill we can get. And keep up the pressure on the Senate Teabaggers to pass a good bill without poison pills and giveaways to Donnie’s monsters.

    Nancy said in the RollCall piece that if they bring a bill to the floor, then it will have the votes to pass. We’ll see what happens.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think Republicans really started losing it, after Gingrich took over the Party. They stopped trying to govern and just worked on hoovering up lobbyist cash and scoring political points

    Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, Sr., all had issues with not abusing executive power, but they somehow did attempt govern. Bush, Sr signed the 1990 Clean Air Act, because scientific data showed acid rain was a problem in the Great Lakes states. That is unimaginable today.

    I think Bush, Jr. was the first time they really kept pushing divisions and were on “permanent campaign mode”, because despite their hubris, they must have known they didn’t have a ton of support going in.

  88. 88.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    So-like an agrarian peasant in the 15th century? You’re bragging about this? My God, why?

    Ha! Please tell me you’ve said this out loud.

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    conservatives like to choose who suffers

    I would like that too. My choices would be … different … from theirs, however.

  90. 90.

    plato

    ‘Climate apartheid’ between rich and poor looms, UN expert warns.

    A UN expert has warned of a possible “climate apartheid”, where the rich pay to escape from hunger, “while the rest of the world is left to suffer”.

    Even if current targets are met, “millions will be impoverished”, said Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty.

    He also criticised steps taken by UN bodies as “patently inadequate”.

    “Ticking boxes will not save humanity or the planet from impending disaster,” Mr Alston warned.

    The Australian native is part of the UN’s panel of independent experts, and submitted his report – which is based on existing research – to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.

    A key warning was that the world’s poor are likely to be hardest hit by rising temperatures – and the potential food shortages and conflict that could accompany such a change.

    Developing nations are expected to suffer at least 75% of the costs of climate change – despite the fact that the poorer half of the world’s population generate just 10% of emissions.

    Those “who have contributed the least to emissions… will be the most harmed,” he said, warning that the effects could undo 50 years of progress on poverty reduction.

  93. 93.

    MomSense

    @Kathleen:

    I’m so sick of people pretending that the Republican Party is different because of trump and only now. The architect of the family separation nightmare is one Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. Hardly a newcomer to Republican politics.

  94. 94.

    Kathleen

    @BlueDWarrior: The anchors and editors are willing accomplices. They have been slowly introducing these ideas as acceptable into mainstream conversation. Examples include Brian William’s claiming to listen to Limbaugh to better understand The Heartlannd, Ann Coulter on the cover of Time, “both siding”, NPR refusing to use word “torture”, etc. Which is why I so loathe the media and refer to them as “Mainslime Media”. They own a good part of this.

  96. 96.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Lapassionara: George C. Zoley, CEO of the GEO Group, made approximately $6.6 million in total compensation in 2018. He is a Greek immigrant, 69 years old. Worked for Wackenhut (which has a *long* history in the USA) and spun this company out in the 1980’s.

    He’s a big donor to Trump, natch, and a very big deal at Florida Atlantic Univ, his alma mater.

    I’d bet he gets a fresh toothbrush whenever he wants.

  97. 97.

    Gin & Tonic

    In other news, Austria’s Supreme Court rules that Dmyto Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch and erstwhile business partner of one Paul Fucking Manafort, can be extradited to the US to face bribery charges.

  98. 98.

    Kathleen

    @Betty Cracker: Excellent summary. I would add Nixon undermining Paris Peace talks which prolonged Vietnam War in 1968 and Reagan’s deal with Iran in 1980. I’ve been following news closely since the early 60’s and I never heard of either of these events until the last 20 years. These stories were not covered at the time they occurred.

  100. 100.

    laura

    @Betty Cracker: here’s my reply to Rikyrah’s comment noting the $775 per day per detainee: so your link reveals a few things, the GEO group includes retired CDCR director Scott Kernan, warden in New Folsom and Mule Creek prisons and while he’s the lowest ‘paid’ at 157K, the board was noted as averaging stock trades every 43 days.
    They are in it for the money. Every damn one. The money.
    Update, Kernan’s mailing address is in Florida, but lives in West Sacramento. I’m no expert, but it looks like he’s sheltering his new found source of wealth from the tax man. I’ll be calling the good people in Congresswoman Matsui’s office about the internment camps something of which her family has first hand knowledge.
    Low tumbrel number for Scott Kernan.

  101. 101.

    Kathleen

    @Percysowner: I called Portman’s office and his intern said he’s opposed Trump’s policy since Day 1 and has been working with Democrats to address a host of issues including treatment of the children. I had quickly scanned web site prior to calling and didn’t see anything about this but I either didn’t look closely enough or he’s keeping it on the down low. The list she read me was impressive. FWIW.

  102. 102.

    PST

    @Quinerly: Concerning the Obama/Clooney double date, I hope the Obamas were talking George into returning to his native Kentucky to run for Senate.

  103. 103.

    Kathleen

    @plato: I’m old enough to remember when Dancin’ Dave busted a move as Karl Rove’s backup dancer at WHCA dinner. Good times.

  104. 104.

    Betty Cracker

    Anyone watching BBC/HBO limited series “Years and Years”? I saw the premiere episode last night, and I’m hooked. Since the news is so unbearable, we’ve been reading more and watching escapist TV. Y&Y doesn’t really count as escapism because it imagines our current political world, only worse. But it’s fascinating because we see these horrors through the lens of a Manchester UK-based family.

  105. 105.

    SenyorDave

    @Betty Cracker: Yes, Trump has “entered that spiral” with women by attacking reproductive healthcare at every turn, and just yesterday, he dismissed a rape allegation by saying the victim wasn’t his type.

    It boggles the mind. The follow-up should be to ask how many times he has raped women who are his type.

  106. 106.

    Princess

    @Baud: Make no mistake: if 3.5% of Americans marched, it would be Tianamen Square. They would shoot. I’ve seen how Chicago police handle much smaller groups and they would not hesitate. NPR would describe it as an out of control rioting mob. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    That’s an issue, absolutely, but women need to stop with this “hero of the workplace” stuff. They’re lowering the bar. I hear it with me too, too. “Why, I was harassed regularly and I never complained!” No? Maybe we should have. The norms suck. They’re rock bottom. Change them. Reach higher.

  109. 109.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    I agree. We were conditioned to be like this. There’s also the issue of economic insecurity and how that affects our willingness to report workplace harassment. It’s also a reality that it can make it almost impossible to find another job.

  110. 110.

    villiageidiocy

    @NotMax: If you can stand a tragedy, go see “The Ferryman”. It is three hours long but I swear you won’t register the time it moves so quickly and is so engrossing.

  111. 111.

    montanareddog

    @Betty Cracker:

    Anyone watching BBC/HBO limited series “Years and Years”?

    *Spoiler Alert* – things don’t get better in the next few years! We have seen the first 4 episodes; a distressing, horrifying, believable future.

  112. 112.

    Mike in NC

    Opened the paper this morning to see an article about how our last shitty Republican governor — Tea Party scumbag Pat McCrory — was deemed unsuitable for a job working for Dear Leader because he was “too thin skinned” and once made “comments critical of Trump” (regarding his being a sexual predator). Oh the irony!

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    I had a great female boss when I was in the postal service, pregnant. I got this idea in my head that there was carbon monoxide in the sorting room because the trucks would pull up at a dock and then…I don’t know. Although she was smart and knew this was completely insane, she bought a detector. I was like “well, good, because we’re all dying in here”. There was none detected. She never said a word.

  115. 115.

    Peale

    @Kay: I was laughing about that this morning. It’s so GOP. We want government to solve some of our issues, not tell us what they are. We know what they are. Its people who don’t have these issues that need to be aware of them. I’m imagine Be Best Ambassadors discussions start with “You Know What You’re Problem is? You’re too damn fat and not very pretty.” and get worse from there.

  117. 117.

    Reboot

    @Lapassionara: Delurking to say you might be able to do something about it via taking money away from your bank, if your bank happens to be one of the ones mentioned in this article: banks financing detention centers
    SunTrust, for example, is a major financer of GEO and CoreCivic, two major private prison-building companies. On p. 2 of the (hopefully linked) report, there’s a chart “KEY BANKS PROVIDING FINANCING TO CORECIVIC AND GEO GROUP.” SunTrust is listed second. Our family has banked with them since 1960, but that’s going to change forthwith.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    George W Bush’s minions had an easier lift to start with. So many people have trouble seeing that it’s as bad to torture a brown terrorist as it is to torture your mom, that torture of people alleged to be terrorists became Standard Operating Procedure, as horrible as that is.

    So now the Trump minions only have to lift from torture of brown terrorsists is OK up to torture of innocent brown kids is OK. So here we are, torturing little kids who want asylum from being tortured and murdered by fascists and gang members back home!

    I don’t know how we go back to not torturing anyone again, but that’s what’s needed.

    ETA: And putting little kids into concentration camps with terrible uncooked food and no sanitary facilities is torture, make no mistake about that!!

  120. 120.

    The Moar You Know

    drumpf doesn’t have sex with women, he fucks them.

    @Ruckus: He’s still not stone-age enough for the GOP’s real view of women, which as follows:

    Only humans with a penis have agency. All others are receptacles either for semen or babies.

    Trump’s a goddamn progressive compared to some of the shitheads that are waiting to take their shot at his seat. We need to acknowledge that. He is not the worst. The worst are still to come.

    Opened the paper this morning to see an article about how our last shitty Republican governor — Tea Party scumbag Pat McCrory — was deemed unsuitable for a job working for Dear Leader because he was “too thin skinned” and once made “comments critical of Trump” (regarding his being a sexual predator).

    @Mike in NC: Proof of my assertion. Pat McCrory would have signed off on most everything Hitler did, and he’s not extreme enough to serve a GOP administration.

  121. 121.

    BRyan

    @Frankensteinbeck: @MomSense: “conditioned to be like this”? I don’t know, maybe. But it’s also true that the work world was a different place not all that long ago (or so it seems to me, looking back over 40 years in the workplace). The millennials’ attitude I find tedious is a sort of smug “we wouldn’t accept that, we want a better work/life balance,” etc., as though previous generations had no such desires and were thrilled to just put their head down and slog for decades. Seems no apparent recognition that the current way, what they can view as their workplace rights, were paved by others’ efforts and accomplishments. But Isn’t it always so.

  123. 123.

    randy khan

    @Betty Cracker:

    Goddamn, I hate these people with the white hot heat of 10K exploding supernovas.

    Now don’t hold back – tell us what you really think.

  124. 124.

    Brachiator

    Remember, last year when stories broke RE the federal gov’t stealing children, reaction was so negative that the WH claimed they stopped the policy, & concealed it. Nothing’s more important to Trump than protecting his ego/being perceived as popular. He can be forced to back down

    People keep talking about how Trump will back down to protect his ego.

    This is more often not the case, especially with respect to his racist, nativist immigration policy.

    More often, he will lie, deflect, conceal, but continue with his policies. In an interview with Chuck Todd, Trump told a bald face lie and blamed Obama.

    We have a president who enjoys being cruel, and who delights in inflicting pain on those who cannot fight back and who he perceives as defying his will.

  125. 125.

    J R in WV

    And here’s a great piece by Reuters News about judges helping keep information about product dangers secret even from regulators. After a court finds that a product caused great harm to a plaintiff, the defendants request that all the papers be sealed, end of story.

    Reuters does a good job here!

    This is headlined with opiates but there are many other products identified from roll-over protection in GM vehicles to a popular Remington deer rifle that goes off randomly from a defective trigger design, since the 1940s. Read this, you need to know about judges keeping secrets!!

    ETA: Forgot to mention, dateline: WELCH, WV !!! local center of the opioid crisis!

    ” Reuters found that over the past 20 years, judges sealed evidence relevant to public health and safety in about half of the 115 biggest defective-product cases consolidated before federal judges in so-called multidistrict litigation, or MDLs. Those cases comprised nearly 250,000 individual death and injury lawsuits”

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Anyone watching BBC/HBO limited series “Years and Years”? I saw the premiere episode last night, and I’m hooked. Since the news is so unbearable, we’ve been reading more and watching escapist TV. Y&Y doesn’t really count as escapism because it imagines our current political world, only worse

    Hmmm. A post BREXIT drama? I had not heard much about this show. There was more buzz around Euphoria, which I have not watched.

    I will check this out. Thanks for the tip.

  127. 127.

    randy khan

    @NotMax:

    Beginning researching Things To Do during NY trip. Broadway/Off Broadway = slim pickings this year for this old fart. Only thing which piques interest on first glance is Drunk Shakespeare.

    Not even Kiss Me, Kate or Hadestown (which sounds really interesting to me)?

    You probably have some of your own ideas already, but my wife and I often go to the Morgan Library, which has interesting book-related shows, and we keep going back to the Japanese galleries at the Met. (Actually, a lot of the less-populated galleries at the Met are fantastic, not to mention that this time of year they have a commission on the roof, which has fabulous views of Central Park and the city.)

  128. 128.

    randy khan

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I think that’s a good approach, and also mentioning that the kids should not suffer for their parents’ sins. (I don’t happen to think the parents have sinned, but we’re talking tactics, not morals here.)

  129. 129.

    Brachiator

    @SenyorDave:

    and just yesterday, [Trump] dismissed a rape allegation by saying the victim wasn’t his type.

    Brazil’s president Bolsonaro made a similar comment about a female legislator.

    I guess that authoritarian leaders like to work the same material.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @Reboot:

    Delurking to say you might be able to do something about it via taking money away from your bank, if your bank happens to be one of the ones mentioned in this article: banks financing detention centers

    Thanks for the info on this. Anything that we can do to oppose this evil might help.

  131. 131.

    randy khan

    So I called my Senators and Congressmen (all Dems) today about the border issues. They’re all in the right place – one of them even has posted on Facebook that the cruelty is the point! – so it was mostly about thanking them and telling them to keep up the good work. It did seem that they’re getting a lot of calls about this, and they’re prepared for them. In fact, Warner’s office had a statement that the staffer read to me, and Beyer’s staffer seemed to be reading something too. Beyer’s staffer volunteered that they were hearing about this a lot and Warner’s staffer told me the same thing when I asked.

    And Beyer’s staffer made a point of saying that every additional call does make a difference. It was interesting to hear someone actually say that, but it reinforces the importance of calling.

  133. 133.

    J R in WV

    @Reboot:

    Delurking to say you might be able to do something about it via taking money away from your bank, if your bank happens to be one of the ones mentioned in this article: banks financing detention centers

    Thanks Reboot, for this info. We don’t do business with any of these banks, but for those interested in checking out the participating banks, here they are:

    Bank of America, SunTrust, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Regions, Fifth Third, Citizens, PNC, Pinnacle Bank, First Tennessee Bank, Synovus Bank, US Bank!

    A total of $2.692 BILLION in operating loans…

  134. 134.

    Reboot

    @J R in WV: Thanks for listing the banks. I got as far as SunTrust and was all, well, here’s one thing I can do, apart from calling. So far there don’t seem to be any demonstrations in my area.

  135. 135.

    NotMax

    @randy khan

    The first is scheduled to close before I arrive. As for the second, wasn’t much impressed with the scene from it performed on the Tony awards show.

    @villageidiocy

    Thanks, but have had more than my fill of Irish angst darmas. YMMV.

  138. 138.

    laura

    Heres GEO groups director of operations:

    Mr. Scott Michael Kernan is Director of the Company. Mr. Kernan served as the Agency Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”) from January 2016 until August 2018. Prior to that time, Mr. Kernan was appointed the Undersecretary of Operations of CDCR beginning in September 2008 and served in that position until retiring in October 2011. In March of 2015, Mr. Kernan returned to the Undersecretary position from his retirement at the request of California Governor Jerry Brown and worked in that capacity until January 2016. From October 2011 until March 2015, Mr. Kernan owned his own independent consulting firm that specialized in corrections and criminal justice. From March 2007 to September 2008, Mr. Kernan served as the Chief Deputy Secretary of Adult Operations of CDCR. Prior to that time, Mr. Kernan served as the Deputy Director of the Division of Adult Institutions of CDCR from May 2006 to March 2007. From November 2004 to May 2006, Mr. Kernan served as the Warden of the California State Prison, Sacramento, a Level IV maximum-security institution. From October 2003 to November 2004, Mr. Kernan served as the Warden of the Mule Creek State Prison, a Level III/IV institution. From March 1983 to October 2003, Mr. Kernan held various correctional positions with CDCR. Mr. Kernan’s invaluable expertise with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will strengthen the Board’s collective knowledge, capabilities and experience.

    Say his name Scott Kernan.
    Profiting from the immiseration/death of of children. For profit. I hope he rots from the inside out.

  139. 139.

    Gretchen

    Called my Republican senator yesterday. They are taking the tack that appropriating more money will fix the problem.

  140. 140.

    Ruckus

    @Butch:
    Tell him you and all your friends are going to donate to the campaign of any democrat who will oppose him and all of you are going to vote democrat. And you are going to convince twice as many people as you now know will do this so they will do the same. He won’t believe you so you get as many people as you can to do this. It won’t take many people to put fear into him. An actual grassroots campaign to oust him. That’s what everyone who has a shit for brains/republican rep of any kind. No place is strictly red or blue, even an 80% red area has 20% not. I lived in a CA county that was 80% blue, there were still rednecks.

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