NEW: Former president Jimmy Carter says a full investigation “would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016….He was put into office because the Russians interfered.” Does that mean he’s an illegitimate president? “Based on what I said, which I can’t retract.” pic.twitter.com/Y3UFUBIIDy
— Susan Page (@SusanPage) June 28, 2019
Former President Carter is a Baptist gentleman of a certain age, so language. But he does have a standing bias against parasitic worms…
Former Vice President Walter Mondale on President Trump: “He’s got something deep in him that is detestable.” Cites “his rhetoric, his harshness, his divisiveness,” then adds: “Doctors tell me they think they recognize symptoms of psychological problems.” At @CarterCenter panel
— Susan Page (@SusanPage) June 28, 2019
The current Oval Office Occupant, needless to say, treated these comments with his usual class and graciousness. Suck on it, Donnie, President Carter has a Nobel Peace Prize and *he* didn’t even have to go sucking up to the Swedes for it…
Most of us thank God, and God thanks Jimmy Carter.
— Jane Black (@AmethystMimosa) June 28, 2019
ETA:
Because it’s relevant here:
Jimmy Carter knows as much about election tampering, and election integrity, as anyone anywhere, through decades of monitoring more than 100 elections around the world. https://t.co/MxYjIWVy9m
This is not just amateur opining on his part. https://t.co/RFxzX5SyQx
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) June 29, 2019
Mike in NC
Live long and prosper, President Carter.
dmsilev
Or the Norwegians even, which might be more likely to work….
SFBayAreaGal
Love Carter
Ohio Mom
As I understand it, all former presidents get periodic intelligence updates — we want to keep them in the loop in case whoever is tne current president wants their advice.
So Carter may be privy to information that we don’t have. Which raises the question, Why the silence from all the rest of the former presidents’ club?
How much of a constitutional crisis do we have to be in before anyone acts the slightest bit alarmed?
pat
Remember when Carter put solar panels on the roof of the White House and Regan took them down?
What if the world had responded then to the threat of human-caused global warming?
History will not be kind.
JPL
He’s right.
Also trump called the signer of the peace treaty with Japan stupid. We have to protect them, and they don’t have to protect us. Do not fear though, trump is gonna fix it.
Putin would love if those bases were closed.
HalfAssedHomesteader
@Ohio Mom: Jeez McGeez! The prospect of Trump getting intelligence updates when he’s out of office. He won’t/can’t read them, of course, but that doesn’t mean he won’t sell them or blab about them on Fox.
cmorenc
I wish Jimmy Carter wasn’t the best ex-President this country has ever had – what I mean by this is not that he isn’t due admiration for how he’s conducted himself post-Presidency, but rather that had his administration been more successful, and he not taken office at one of the most forbiddingly difficult set of circumstances for any president to have succeeded – we would never have suffered Ronald Reagan and his toxic RW GOP successors in the oval office.
Often, I have wondered if this country would have been better off in the long run if Gerald Ford had pulled out a squeaker in the 1976 election, so a GOP president with a bumbling image would have been in office when stagflation and Iran hit the fan. We’d have likely had President Ted Kennedy in 1980 and some version of universal health care would have long ago been in place (and we would never have been afflicted by so many RW assholes like Scalia on SCOTUS).
SFBayAreaGal
Off topic. I found this article interesting about the heat wave in Europe and India and what is happening here.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/strange-wavy-jet-stream-blasting-europe-heat-scientists-say-could-ncna1024826
HRA
@Ohio Mom:
It is understandable as to why Obama is being silent. Bill Clinton seems to my estimation also has a reason to not speak now. I have no clue about George Bush although is no secret that he does not like him.
Kudos to President Carter and Walter Mondale!
Raoul
In other area Republican Venality, Bret Stephens stepped in it again with his latest column, and the never-Trumpers (such as Max Boot) are having a fit that Bret is being called out.
Sad!
sukabi
@HalfAssedHomesteader: another reason to impeach, remove and jail the MF.
JGabriel
Susan Page via Anne Laurie @ Top:
I usually go with contemptible, but detestable works too.
Doug R
@HalfAssedHomesteader:
One of the MANY reasons Nancy Pelosi wants him in prison.
dexwood
@HalfAssedHomesteader:
They’ll just send him tweets filled with plausible sounding bullshit. . . I hope.
SiubhanDuinne
@HalfAssedHomesteader:
But can he actually do that from prison?
lamh36
FUQ YOU TOM and the rest of the never Trumpers.
Nichols is not a Democrat he is a never Chumper who just as soon throw every Dem under the bus if a “Republican” other than Chump came along. They want Dem in name only that they think they can get over onto their side by promising bipartisanship. Why should anyone listen to him?
Nichols and the rest of the Never Trumpers including #JoeScar #AnaNavarro #MikeMurphy #SteveSchmidt and yes even #NicoleWallace DO NOT want a “strong” Dem to be the nom or win the Presidency. No they want a one termer, to clean up GOP mess and then lose to a “true Republican”
MattF
@HalfAssedHomesteader: Supposing, for the sake of argument, that Trump will be an ex-president at liberty at some point in the future– I think any request to intel agencies that he be briefed on current matters will be returned with the suggestion he ought to perform an anatomically unlikely act of self-fertilization.
Gelfling 545
@JGabriel: One might even say…deplorable.
SiubhanDuinne
I have just learned, from reading Alexander Nazaryan’s book “The Best People,” about Trump’s disastrous Cabinet and senior advisory picks, that there is actually a lobbyist — a LOBBYIST!! — who rejoices in the Dickens-perfect name of Rich Baggers. I am beside myself with mirth.
Cermet
The orange fart cloud is a stain on our democracy that will always be there thanks to the uneducated whites that foolishly believed their ‘betters’ will aid them (lol) – history will judge us and not kindly;once more whites prove that they’d rather shoot themselves in the foot than cede any power. Once before we had a similar issue and only a terrible war force the privileged whites to cede their power to own fellow humans. We are faced with a similar issue – a select group of whites want to control all power and will do anything to hold onto that power. Meanwhile, the world burns both due to heating and the wars that this climate disaster will spawn. Once again, millions will die needlessly because a small group of whites wouldn’t cede even a small amount of power.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Fuckem (H/T the late great efgoldman).
lamh36
This is the Dem party…fuq never Trumpers and the rest of the RWNJ.
We stand together…ain’t gonna let the birther shit that happened to PBO happen again!
Even if they are doing it to look good. It’s STILL a great look for those who have spoken up.
more names in subsequent tweets
Fav Cory Booker…short and sweet “Kamala Harris doesn’t have SHIT to prove”
Baud
@lamh36:
@lamh36:
So I don’t have to leave the boat, what’s this about?
Ladyraxterinok
@cmorenc: I like many at the time didn’t want Ted to run for president. Many of us were afraid It would set him up to be killed like his 2 older brothers had been.
This was a very real fear for many of us at the time.
BTW Ted spoke at my college in Houston during the 60 election, and I got a chance to hear him in person then.
NotMax
@HRA
The whole being dead thing is somewhat of an impediment to communication.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
❤️?❤️?❤️ to Cory. Good for him.
debbie
Very deep in him. Like Stalin’s Symbiant.
SiubhanDuinne
@HRA:
I’ve been there since 2000, honestly.
lamh36
They are looking at her like…”uh…who are you…”
debbie
@lamh36:
Guess they couldn’t find a quote or tweet from Bernie. //
Ella in New Mexico
@Ohio Mom:
While this may be true, it’s just as likely a result of Carter’s extensive experience in overseeing fair and democratic elections and his work on human rights that’s driving his opinion. And given that he’s in his 90’s and has survived literal brain cancer, who can blame him for speaking truthfully here?
And I mean, seriously, does any of us need intelligence briefings to see just how abominable and dangerous Trump is?
Ladyraxterinok
@lamh36: Why? What did she do/say that he thinks is so terrible?
debbie
@Baud:
Two things: She’s Jamaican so she’s not black, and she lied about being bused. Most, but not all, of the candidates have come to her defense in statements and tweets.
Baud
@debbie:
The lie about being bused was a lie though.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
And inhaling paint fumes post-presidency likely hasn’t improved whatever minuscule mental acuity he had.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ladyraxterinok:
In the fall of 1960 I was working in the book department of the flagship (State Street) Marshall Field & Co. in downtown Chicago. I have no idea why they chose that particular venue, but several Kennedy women came to visit one day for about 15 minutes. I know Eunice Kennedy Shriver was one of them, and I know Jacqueline Kennedy was not. Nor was Rose Kennedy. The others were among the numerous Kennedy sisters and sisters-in-law. It was whirlwind, crazy time.
JPL
@cmorenc: Ford was the last republican president that I voted for.
I should add first and last, because I sure as hell didn’t vote for Nixon
debbie
@Baud:
Au contraire, according to the school district.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
It’s not the paint fumes, it’s the turpentine.
Baud
@debbie:
That’s what I was trying to say. It’s a lie that she lied.
Another Scott
@debbie: Baud pulled a tricky double-reverse on you. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@Baud:
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-jr-shared-a-racist-tweet-about-kamala-harris-2019-6
Apaarently Trump Jr. retweeted and then deleted something claiming Harris isn’t a real Black American.
Good for the united response shaming Jr.
schrodingers_cat
@lamh36: I don’t trust these Never T Rs. True for David Fucking Brooks, and it holds for almost any never T R.
debbie
@Baud:
Sorry. It must be the heat.
debbie
@Another Scott:
That takes very little skill!
Baud
@Ohio Mom:
I understand that “issue.” I was more confused about why a so called never Trumper would put her down based on false information. That’s trumpian.
sukabi
@debbie: is THAT what Putin calls it?
JPL
@debbie: No kidding.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I am just waiting for Jacobin or some leftie to attack her for not being the right kind of Indian.
JPL
@Baud: Yes it was..
Matt McIrvin
@lamh36: A never-Trumper Republican will vote for Harris above Trump, but hate everything about it? That’s EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT. Any better response from him would mean positions were being wasted.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Isn’t the head of Jacobin Indian or of Indian descent?
Sure Lurkalot
@lamh36: Truer words were never spoken. There’s a straight line from all of those you mentioned, and many more, to Trump. Why don’t they spend their time finding that elusive true blue principled conservative to primary Trump? Because there is no such thing as Trumpism…they created his “base” and destroyed any sense of shared purpose in this country with their policies.
Anne Laurie
@Baud:
That colored lady had the nerve to plan what she’d do in advance in the debate! And what she did involved being mean to Nice Old Uncle Joe!
Hand to goddess, I respect a lot of what Nichols says about other Republicans / white men generally. But, with the best will in the world, as “Democratic” as he really wants go in 2020 is Amy Klobuchar (who he assumes won’t be the nominee). He wants us to nominate a nice well-spoken white dude who’ll make Tom and his fellow not-totally-insane Republican friends feel comfy about voting for ‘the ideological enemy’. Just as Joe Biden defends the ‘comity’ of Southern segregationists, Tom is nostalgic for the ‘comity’ of Democrats like… Joe Biden.
JPL
@Ladyraxterinok: He spoke at my high school and I was in the third row. That was many years ago. My parents met his brother when he was Senator.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
“Good” Republicans can vote their country or not. Democrats shouldn’t worry about their feefees.
Thanks, AL.
JPL
@Anne Laurie: Wow.. It’s almost like they speak about females differently or something.
germy
This nitwit’s blog:
https://clarissasblog.com/2019/06/28/neoliberal-progressivism/
And here’s one of her commenters:
What horrible, shitty people.
Anne Laurie
@schrodingers_cat:
Too busy calling her ‘a cop’ and ‘an anchor baby’. Horseshoe theory is probably *the* theme of the 2020 campaign(s)…
JPL
@Baud: Meghan McCain would prefer they kiss her feet for their vote.
Cacti
@Anne Laurie:
It was the theme of 2016. It just never went away.
Baud
@Cacti:
Agreed.
Anne Laurie
@Baud: To be honest, I’m expecting Harris to say something cruel to one of Nichol’s personal enemies on the right… and then he’ll discover a sneaking respect for her!
Elderly white curmudgeons, how they work. And, yes, I speak from personal experience :)
Barbara
@Anne Laurie: They are having difficulty with the idea that they have done much to push the country in a direction where they no longer have a comfortable perch. George Will is the same. I have felt mostly out of step politically my whole adult life, and it is really amazing to see these guys who think that whichever party is in power should be catering to them.
Villago Delenda Est
Nichols can just fuck the fuckin’ fuck off.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Are you a cracker whisperer? Baud! 2020! needs one.
MisterForkbeard
@schrodingers_cat: “Kamala says she’s half Indian, but we investigated and she’s not Native American AT ALL. She’s a racist liar!”
There.
lamh36
Question guys, does anyone know which candidate has the most former #NoDramaObama staffers on their campaign?
Cause it can’t be Biden…their camp is leaking like a sieve….both Obama campaigns didn’t play that
germy
pinacacci
First President I could vote for, and I did, and I still love him. Truth-tellers are rare. The comments in the WaPo article are heartening.
Immanentize
@MisterForkbeard:
Your description of discourse today is true. But you left out “She is no more Indian than Warren (Pocahontas!)”
Baud
@germy:
I’m not even completely sure that’s accurate.
germy
@Baud: No problem. MAGA!
Anne Laurie
@Villago Delenda Est: As long as he actually votes for the Democrat in 2020 — and encourages his followers to do the same — I’m willing to let him piss & moan in advance.
Nichol’s got an actual ideology, he’s not another Doubthat or But-My-FeeFees Bret Stephens (much less Erik of Infinite Erikness).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“too much credit”… she scared him
lamh36
@Baud: The tweet from Nichols posted the t-shirt the Harris camp was selling of he as a little girl…then called it a “racially charged” attack against Biden.
The other because there has been an uptick in bots and propaganda tweets and comments along with a re-tweet from Chump Jr, questioning Kamala Harris’ Blackness
jl
@dmsilev: Well, at least the House GOPers who wanted Trump to get the peace prize knew enough to contact the Norwegian committee that makes the decision. I have to wonder how many Trumpsters sent a postcard to the Emperor, or Tsar, or Grand Vizier Pooh-Bah, or some such nonsense, of Sweden.
Edit: though I do wonder why they would care about some prize of limousine liberal, snotty, commie socialist countries where their people suffer terribly under the yoke of mixed economy liberalism comminess.
Jay
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Good.
@lamh36:
Thanks. Idiotic controversy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: My impression is the big guns are sitting this one out. The O’Bros sounded very sad for Biden, and also as if this is what they were expecting. I got an image in my mind of White House meetings where Joe started rambling about the 70s and eyes met and rolled.
Steeplejack
@lamh36, @Baud:
Jay
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/more-gop-ratfucking-donald-segretti.html?m=1
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh please God.
mad citizen
@Anne Laurie: I checked her website, and yes, there is a black t-shirt available with her childhood picture on it–no words, no reference to Uncle Joe. BFD. This makes me want to vote for her a thousand times more, so there is that. Suck it, Tom Nichols, whoever you are.
Baud
@mad citizen:
Is she black in that picture?
There you go.
jl
@Steeplejack: If the t-shirt shown in the pic is what the fuss is about, it is pretty weak tea. A cute pic of Harris as a kid on a t-shirt? That is standard campaign tweaking, and I think Biden deserves something harsher, actually. Hell, It’s so cute I’m thinking of buying one even though I am for Warren right now (though I did contribute to Harris because I think she should be in the race).
But this is from this guy Nichols, who is some goofball lost-in-the-woods moderate GOPer, who concern trolls, consciously or unconsciously. Why even pay any attention to him?
A real issue with me on Harris is her waffling on her health care plans. She’s supported single payer plans on high profile venues three times now, then backtracked a day or so later, claiming she didn’t quite understand the question right. She has to knock off that BS and talk straight on her policies.
But, every candidate has their problems. Her name is on some good health care legislation. So she is still my second choice after Warren.
Ohio Mom
@germy: I ended at Clarissa’s blog when she was on No More Mister Nice Guy’s blogroll, though I don’t visit her anymore (she is no longer on the blogroll so Mr. No More must have got tired of her too).
She can be an interesting character because as adept as she is at mastering languages, she has yet to master anything about American culture. She’s eternally in her own bubble.
And her commentators are equally at sea and the worst sort of echo chamber. Unless someone new joined the club, none of them could have possibly had had any direct experience with bussing.
mad citizen
I happen to be reading Kamala’s book as I have time (on page 95). I’ll note the picture in question is in the first set of pics, (December 1971) with the caption “My favorite pleather jacket at age seven.”
Candidates have to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Who knows, this could be her “HOPE” poster.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: of course, Michael Jackson was black when he was a child too!
Brachiator
So, I don’t think that Jimmy Carter is perfect, but I think that Jimmy Carter and President Obama are both fundamentally decent human beings.
And yes, I will fight you if you don’t disagree.
And damn, Trump looks like a fool trying to bash Carter. Trump is the definition of a one trick pony. Sad!
NotMax
@mad citizen
Someone unconnected with the campaign who is more skilled as regards Photoshop abilities than I needs to whip up an variant image, with a bold red circle with a slash through it over her picture and the following Biden quote from 1975, attributed in print thereon to him, a year in which Harris would have been in 5th or 6th grade.:
“I’ve gotten to the point where I think our only recourse to eliminate busing may be a constitutional amendment.”
citation
JimV
I just want to say, not for the first time, that the two votes I cast for Carter were the two surest, happiest votes of my life. Although if I get a chance to vote for Warren there might be a new record.
mad citizen
@jl: Was thinking out in the yard mowing a little grass after a 92 degree/150% humidity day (mercifully, the rain precipated out of the sky precipitously just now), policies and positions don’t matter that much. I wish all the D’s would point to the importance of electing their party, etc. Any of them can say what they want. All I want is a competent, dignified, intelligent liberal doing the job.
A thunderstorm also just went through the outdoor shed area of the Dave Mathews concert tonight in Noblesville IN. I can’t think of a good joke here, am too tired.
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
Young Michael was so cute.
jl
@mad citizen: Beating Trump is the most important thing, i agree.
However, next after beating Trump, good policies are very important, and clear thought on how to get them implemented is just as important.
I think the sad fact is that standard center-right, and center-left policies, have just crapped out for enough people that a critical mass of them, will go do something stupid and vote for somebody like Trump. I think Obama will be remembered as a top 10 or 15 president, even apart from his status as first non-White president. But his experiment to go back to old days of comity and cooperation was not successful enough to prevent a toxic goofball like Trump getting elected.
Even if 90 percent of 2016 Trump voters are die hard bigots, racists, xenophobes and general purpose haters, fact is the election was decided by less than 100,000 votes in three states. So paying attention to why that happened is important, and I think some of it is due to failed centrist policies that haven’t worked well enough for a lot of people.
So, among those who show they know something about how to win election, I prioritize by policy. So, Warren, Harris my top two, they are OK on both scores.
JPL
@jl: I not only want to beat him, I want to mock him and his family.
Baud
@JPL:
oatler.
Jesus, this intra-party bickering. And no one invited me!
Baud
@oatler.:
I think the bickering is not among Democrats in this case.
NotMax
@oatler.
It’s nuts and bolts when it comes to campaigning.
As opposed to Dolt 45’s campaigning, which is just completely nuts.
The Pale Scot
@SFBayAreaGal:
Either that guy diving in knows of a specific hole in the bottom of the cement pond or his chest and head are filled with helium and he just floats down like a ray guy punt. I can’t see how he doesn’t get hurt
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If Trump doesn’t fuck up with some stupid statement or tweet, his followers will rush in with their racist ways and handle it for him.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
Thank you for making me smile against the background of trump obliterating the world in which I live.
Ohio Mom
@The Pale Scot: I flinched at that image.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Credit where it’s due…
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Yes he is. Indians are divided by language, caste, and religion. The fractures go deeper because they are a lot older than the ones in America.
To most Americans we are an indistinguishable blob. But even I who has spent more time in the United States than in India can tell you a lot about where a person is from based on their name.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Wow. I’d assumed there was a quote or something. If a simple photograph of a small child of color upsets Biden, I guess he was closer to his segregationist friends than he’s let on. //
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: That Dwight David Eisenhower was such a moronic looser.//
jl
@Baud: If commenters are talking about the infamous Harris t-shirt and the Biden website. I agree the former is BS from a sad moderate GOPer concern troll. And given that some of Nichols’ tweets are obviously false, perhaps a malicious concern troll, the type who maybe really prefers to keep ultra toxic and dangerous GOPers in power and hope for the best while self-righteously and weakly complaining about it, rather that submit to Democratic tyranny. Harris has gone out of her way to NOT accuse Biden of racism, but of being very wrong on this specific issue. Nothing wrong with that. It is Nichols (GOPer) smearing Harris.
And the fraudulent Biden website, that is, as far as we know so far, domestic political dirty tricks that have been around since forever.
The vast majority of the Democratic candidates have gone out of their way to not cut and smear each other, except for a couple of very minor dudes who felt they needed to resort to smears, which didn’t work, and who will disappear soon. And the blandly vile Schultz, who has disappeared himself for the time being.
Brachiator
@jl:
I hear you, but I keep wondering what these magical progressive policies might be which are going to save America. I probably am very lefty when it comes to social policy, but am hard headed and utilitarian when it comes to economic policy, and I suppose more centrist than anything else if I had to be placed in an ideological box.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This happened? I’ve seen the needy tweets he’s been sending KJU. It feels like the wheels are falling off at an even greater speed than usual on this trip. The Mueller news really got to him
rikyrah
Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) Tweeted:
Kamala Harris was born in Oakland. Her mother was Tamil Indian; her father was born in Jamaica. Birtherism is racism, full stop. You don’t need to support Harris for the Presidency. But if you are black and buying into this, you are aiding and abetting. https://t.co/eDSDu8aCE9 https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/1145038789783326721?s=17
NotMax
@debbie
While I applaud Carter, have a nagging trepidation that his suddenly popping up on Dolt 45’s radar will push that one into a reckless incursion involving Iran, to ‘prove’ he’s ‘the best ever,’ as contrasted with the ill-fated operation in Iran during Carter’s presidency.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Straight out of Putin’s mouth.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What’s this two-hour hook-up costing the American taxpayers?
debbie
@NotMax:
He doesn’t need anyone to push him that way.
James E Powell
@jl:
Yes, we should pay attention to why that happened.
What are these failed centrist policies? Will the Republicans be moving to the left on these policy areas? If not, why would the failed centrist policies cause anyone to vote Republican?
And who are the people for whom these policies have not worked well enough? Did they vote Republican? Did they do so because of the failed centrist policies or was there some other reason?
Did the NYT carry on its smear campaign against Hillary Clinton because of failed centrist policies? Did Comey write his letter because of his frustration with failed centrist policies?
Please, help me to learn.
SiubhanDuinne
@JimV:
After several shameful years of voting for Republican candidates, I voted for Jimmy Carter in both the 1976 and 1980 general elections, and at least one primary.
NotMax
@debbie
Brain intended to write “goad.” Fingers typed “push.” Were edit available, would alter it to match intention.
Jay
Andy Ngo got milkshaked today while attending a Nazi anti-Pride Rally. Pearl Clutchers are Clutching Pearls.
jl
@Brachiator: ” but am hard headed and utilitarian when it comes to economic policy, ”
We disagree. Many of Warren’s and Harris’ policy proposals are not ultra-lefty at all. If you think they are, then you need to go read up on comparative economic systems and their performance around the world among high income industrialized countries, from Europe, to East Asia to Australia and New Zealand. Including that very scary undemocratic socialist commie country full of oppressed serfs forced to work at very highly paid jobs with much less income inequality than the US, Switzerland.
If you mean that the US pubic perceives the polices as ultra-lefty, then it is a matter of making your case. Too many Democrats are afraid of making their case, and condemn themselves thereby to live as perpetual losers. IMHO. If you believe something, but are afraid to even argue your case, then you will usually lose in swaying public opinion.
bupalos
Jackals help me out here. I’m up for some 4th of July activism and I’m trying to figure out how and what
Background: My little (mostly liberal) college town set in the midst of Ohio Trump-country has a cutesy 4th of july thing every year that I’m pretty attached to. It really never has any actual American values attached to it, and it’s billed as “old fashioned” which has always made me slightly uncomfortable. Every year we put together a community band, on the level where it’s hard to actually fill out all the parts. Anyway, the band director is kind of a Trumper, on the DL, and this year he’s selected as the penultimate number, right before the national anthem, the “America First” march. He’s a professional music historian that goes into long perorations on most of the numbers we play, and it’s possible that he’s going to half-redeem the choice with what he says, but I really doubt it. I think he’s just doing a little subconscious or maybe overt “see, this Trump thing isn’t new, it’s a totally respectable stance” kind of thing.
Anyway, if that’s how it goes I want to be ready with a some kind of stunt to communicate to the audience what’s going on here and what the feelings of the band are. I mean, I could just try to recruit some compatriots to utterly monkey wrench the song, but that seems musically unethical. But I’d do like a leaflet drop of dead immigrant kids, or… I don’t know what. Open to suggestions.
I’ll document it.
Michael Mackness
@pat: History won’t be kind to Saint Ronnie? Oh, nooo, say it isn’t so! /s
When I first read about this, I thought Ronnie Raygun was simply trying to demonstrate that he was a bigger asshole than his carefully curated image portrayed him.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Kamala is half Jamaican and half South-Asian Indian, therefore she cannot possibly know what it’s like to be the descendant of slaves.
Like any white cop is going to ask her to show her Indian or Caribbean bona fides when they pull her over for DRIVING WHILE BLACK.
bupalos
@jl:
In light of the 25% of the electorate that voted for The Scumsucking Pig, I’ll allow it.
jl
@James E Powell:
OK, I’m game.
1) Financial policy in wake of Great Recession was too centrist in that it followed course of rescuing specific banks, rather than banking sector, and not favorable enough to ordinary people who lost a lot of asset value in their homes. Economists from libertarian leaning Vernon L Smith to progressive Stiglitz advocated for policies modeled on Great Depression HOLC, but that was shot down by centrists like Geithner.
2) PPACA health care reform was too centrist in that was too deferential to belief that under regulated financial markets (in this case insurance markets) were stable. The PPACA provided great improvement in access to health care, but not enough on burden of cost of care for the sick.
3) International trade policy has been too biased towards favorable treatment of financial industry, leading to severe and sudden job losses in areas around the country.
4) Number 3) was tied to high dollar policy which devastated terms of trade for US, except for financial industry.
Now, 1) 2) and 4) were policies that were followed consistently through Dem and GOP administrations and backed by the technocrats in a bipartisan fashion, so I think OK to call them center-right and center-left policies.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m not sure he tweeted it, but from the reporting he’s been complaining about the treaty, including in an interview en route to Japan for the G20, and suggesting he may withdraw from it because it obligates the US to defend Japan, but Japan doesn’t have to defend the US. Also, the Japanese are stealing from us in regard to US basing and joint multinational military operations with them. Which, of course, isn’t true. Part of his complaining is bitching that whomever negotiated and agreed to the treaty with Japan was an idiot. It was negotiated during the Truman administration when Eisenhower was in the process of going from Supreme Allied Commander to retired and signed by Eisenhower and then ratified by the Senate.
jl
@bupalos: You are gracious and merciful. I thank you.
Th Pale Scot
@debbie:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kamala-harris-berkeley-busing/
NotMax
@bupalos
A sign or shirt emblazoned with “John Philip Sousa’s parents were immigrants.”
Too abstruse?
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Going rate is $130,000.
Adam L Silverman
@bupalos: Remember, remember the fifth of November…//
Th Pale Scot
Snopes on Harris
rattlemullet
T-rump would have to stand on his momma shoulders to be able to kiss Jimmy Carters ass.
Jeffro
@Raoul: Yeah and Tom Nichols (I think that’s his first name) was having a fit on Twitter earlier today because someone was being called racist (trumpov jr?) for questioning Harris’ blackness.
These #NeverTrumpers suck* and can’t be trusted. You’re either 110% telling people to vote Dem all the way down the ticket, or you just don’t really mean it, NTs.
*Rubin excepted…for now
ETA I see someone already noted this a whopping 5 comments later…I really need to read the whole thread before jumping in!
Th Pale Scot
Test
plato
From Jimmy Carter to closet racist raygun.
From Barack Obama to rapist racist totus thug.
From Classy to trashy.
Just like that. Sigh.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: Almost all the Africans that wound up in the Caribbean were there because they were slaves brought there to work the sugar cane plantations.
Th Pale Scot
A certain fact checker on Harris
Jay
@bupalos:
Leaflet/poster the crowd with the American Nazi Party roots of the song.
Get the band to play and sing the Horst Wessel instead.
Get some heroic WWII Vets to take the stage, grab the mikes and point out that back in their day, “we fought Nazis”, we didn’t play their music or embrace their ideas.
plato
debbie
@NotMax:
“The Founders were immigrants.”
Baud
Sad!
Jay
http://www.politicalresearch.org/2019/06/20/all-you-have-to-do-is-show-up-how-white-nationalists-are-infiltrating-the-gop/#sthash.Mnq8h0wc.dpbs
plato
@Baud: What a weirdo stalker thug.
Jay
@Baud:
Should never have removed the landmines.
James E Powell
@jl:
Policies aren’t failed policies just because you disagreed with them. But let’s concede they failed.
Now answer the rest of my questions.
Explain how failed centrist policies that didn’t go far enough caused people to vote for a RW racist misogynist billionaire whose party has never done a thing for people who aren’t rich.
Jay
@plato:
Can Little Kim get a restraining order?
chopper
@SiubhanDuinne:
to be fair, it’s not like people in india or the caribbean have any experience with being oppressed by white people.
Mai Naem mobile
@germy: I’ve read Clarissas blog years ago. I refuse to give her a view. She’s just a horrible racist pig. I found myself looking at a twitfeed of some idiot(followed her from a comment she made about Harris)where all her tweets were pointing to Megan Markle being a Brit version of a royal welfare queen and clearly wondering whether the baby was going to look “black.” I don’t even…how do these people live in this current world? Do they look around for a white only neighborhood to live in? How do they go for healthcare where you’re highly likely to run into an Asian provider. How do they go to the airport where they can’t avoid non white people?
rikyrah
?????
Cory Booker???
https://twitter.com/AndrewGillum/status/1145107804241485834
Mr Stagger Lee
@Mike in NC: Hear! Hear! James Earl Carter esta EL HOMBRE!!!
Baud
@rikyrah:
Heh.
NotMax
@Baud
Bring on the stuff that creeps in on little cat feet. From 2017:
lamh36
It’s a work weekend for me, so it’s likely an early bed time for me, but until then, I’m watching James Bond’s #YouOnlyLiveTwice, which I’ve never actually seen.
Goodness, but this shit is a wee bit racist AF.
Wasn’t even 15 min in and ole James after sleeping w/the lovely Asian lady…
“why do Asian girls taste different than English girls?”
DAFUQ.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98c2b53cb57e0a643fb80b5b6ea1e66619de4646476a9534b0db0043b4e07820.gif
Course this means, I GOTTA watcht the ENTIRE movie now. Oh and of course tweet about it (at my “burner” acct since my OG acct is still suspended for now…ugh)… burner account: @Nell3776
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: if it helps anyone understand, she’s twice as black as Tiger Woods
Raoul
@Anne Laurie: If guys like Tom spent half as much time working on other Republican voters as he does trying to influence Democrats, I’d respect that he’s trying to actually make change.
And his broad analysis, that GOP voters have to punish their party at the polls for nominating such trash as Trump or Steve King or Duncan Hunter is correct.
But he has plenty of excess time to trash-talk Democrats. So I’m not that interested.
(He is also strangely obsessed with people taking their shoes off on airplanes)
Steeplejack
@Th Pale Scot:
Fucked up your nym, boss.
Baud
@Raoul:
Weird. In business class, they give you little socks to wear.
Kattails
@Another Scott: Is he practicing for his presidency?
Doug R
@schrodingers_cat:
My comment in a previous thread:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jay: I don’t think we did. They were still there in 1998 when I went there.
Ohio Mom
@bupalos: Whatever you do, wear red, white and blue, carry a flag — make sure you look patriotic.
Those righties do not own patriotism, and too many think that to criticize this country is to disassociate oneself from it.
Leave no question in any viewer’s mind that you act out of love for our country.
scav
Ah yes, the sheer unmitigated benefit of having American military bases on Okinawa. U.S. Marine Corps Sexual Violence on Okinawa
piratedan
@Baud: maybe he’ll pull a Cusack and hoist a boombox above his head playing Peter Gabriel…..
The Dangerman
Maybe I’m missing something, but Trump is calling next weekend a “Salute To America” on the 4th? How imaginative. I bet they might come up with something really new like fireworks and bands playing patriotic music and maybe even hot dogs and apple pie. What would we have done without Trump’s clearly superior imagination?
jl
@James E Powell:
” Policies aren’t failed policies just because you disagreed with them. ”
Well, the financial policy failed in that it left a lot of ordinary people, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, and working class people of all types, with a large asset loss after the Great Recession when they didn’t need to suffer one. If you want to win elections, you don’t want a bunch of angry people with problems with housing that didn’t need to occur. And I cal that a failure.
I’m not answering the rest of your stupid tendentious questions. I suspected you made your comment in bad faith, and looks like I was right.
So, good day sir. I’ll let the other commenters decide who has the best argument.
NotMax
@Raoul
Whose shoes does he prefer they take off?
;)
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
I should invent a black-o-meter app.
Mai Naem mobile
@Adam L Silverman: that’s what I remember from world history and the stuff we covered about the slave trade. Funny how none of this origins of african Americans didn’t matter till Obama. Up to then, one drop of black blood meant you were blackity blackity black.
schrodingers_cat
@Doug R: No I don’t mean the President. I am expecting some leftier-than-thou second generation Indian-American to attack her for her caste privilege.
NotMax
@Doug R
On the contrary, as he recognizes only money with representations of white men as legal tender, let him call her Eisenhower.
:)
debbie
@Mai Naem mobile:
I follow the Royal Family on Facebook. It’s mostly just them attending events, etc. It never fails that comments turn racist when Meghan’s photographed, and it usually comes from Americans. “She’s taking attention away from the Queen, with that fat stomach of hers.”
Steve in the ATL
@Raoul:
Who does this? Anyone who flies more than once a year has PreCheck.
mrmoshpotato
@Anne Laurie:
This white dude thinks Tom can fuck all the way off.
Another Scott
In other news, Reuters:
So either the UAE is sending American arms to Haftar behind our back, or the US is supporting the internationally recognized Libyan government while at the same time supporting a guy who is trying to overthrow it. Or maybe both, since we don’t have a Secretary of Defense…
Neither one look good.
What else like this is going on, and more importantly, what blowback will there be?
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: reusable shopping bags have made the brown paper bag test far less practical.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Inside the plane.
The Pale Scot
@Steeplejack: I guess so
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax: ah. Well, he has a point there! Also, men who wear flip flops should be on the no fly list.
NotMax
So hot here today the gel stuff I occasionally put out for insect control has completely liquefied.
David Koch
very disappointed with the Royal Family’s behavior, today (link)
Mike in NC
@The Dangerman: Ivanka will be coronated as “Trump Approved Perfect American” and handed a giant bouquet or roses and a $5 million check from the US Treasury.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
What do you have against 90+% of the people in Hawaii*? I wear sandals aboard a plane because my feet and ankles tend to sorely swell up when in socks and sneakers or shoes for any prolonged period of time.
(*Locally, “slippahs,” not flip-lflops.)
pat
@Michael Mackness:
I’m picking up on the thread a couple of hours late.
History will not be kind to the US and the reprehensible science deniers (republicans) that we elected over the years when we should (and could) have been doing something about climate change.
Steeplejack
@David Koch:
Give us a clue about what they’re doing?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Steeplejack: they’re being nice — but to the evil new york yankees.
Steeplejack
Respite comment:
Best song I’ve heard in a little while. And then tonight it showed up in TCM’s promo for July. Go figure.
Durand Jones and the Indications, “Sea Gets Hotter.”
Bonus summer song: Pieces of a Dream, “Warm Weather.”
Anathema Device
@jl:
See, from where I’m standing in the Antipodes, it looked like Hillary and the Dems had good enough policies to give her a 3 million vote surplus, and only very specific ratfucking and targetted dirty tricks got Trump those EC votes in what is already an undemocratic EC.
Policies weren’t to blame. Russia/Wikileaks/your media, vote suppression and the stupid EC were. So why throw out good policies when rotten structural issues are the problem?
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Are you 100% sure they aren’t tailoring the song to match your listening history?
:)
lamh36
Wow..they fired the cartoonist for this viral Trump cartoon
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: From the replies
so…. what business does the Irving family have with/around the federal government?
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
What ever happened to calling them zoris?
Jay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/10/01/koreas-begin-removing-land-mines-from-the-dmz-to-ease-military-tensions/
@Another Scott:
Haftar is the current poster child for epic fail.
chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oil, baby, oil. And timber, shipping, news, etc. One of the richest families in Canada.
ETA there are Irving gas stations in the northeastern US.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@chris: for a split second, my brain registered that as “baby oil”
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Well, if they did the op is going really deep, because they took the trouble to post this on YouTube.
Glenn Ford. [shudder]
Steeplejack
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Ah. Burn them with fire!
chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Baby oil is a petroleum product so it wouldn’t surprise me.
Jay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
All of it. There’s only one decent Irving, and sadly, he’s dead, the rest are succubi.
Ohio Mom
@lamh36: Not saying anyone should have been fired, but isn’t there also an editor who approved tne cartoon who is also responsible? But that is what newspapers are, the fiefdoms of the owners. If they do any real reporting, it’s despite that.
The cartoon is everything an editorial cartoon should be, really a masterpiece.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
On the other had, it’s also science fiction month.
CaseyL
@Steeplejack: I think it’s a regional thing. I grew up in the NE calling them “thongs” (and, boy, was I confused the first time I heard “thong” for panties!*) and “flip-flops”; and I think I first heard “zories” when we moved to Miami Beach. Out West it’s “flip-flops,” always.
*I think both are named for the little strap thingie that goes between your toes – if we’re talking about the footwear; or your butt cheeks – if we’re talking about the undies.
J R in WV
@JGabriel:
Don’t forget despicable, a fine word for Trump!
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: smh
NotMax
@CaseyL
(fire up Paul Harvey inflection) “And that’s the rest of the ztori.”
;)
lamh36
THIS….exactly this!
Be Prepared ain’t just some song from the Lion King (BTW…I’m so mad they won’t have a version of Be Prepared in the LIVE action Lion King remake!!! Arguably the BEST song on the darn soundtrack…tah)
Just One More Canuck
@Steve in the ATL: so was Steve Martin
plato
Another Scott
@Ohio Mom: As I skimmed the comments, the paper didn’t run the cartoon, he posted it on a personal thing (Twitter, blog, something) and was canned for it.
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@Baud:
Not according to the school district where she went to school back in the day. Racists are lying about integration in Berkley. Big surprise!
J R in WV
@Baud:
OK, that’s true. We’ll let you go then…
Amir Khalid
I woke up this morning and found Germany were knocked out of die Frauenweltmeisterschaft after being upset 2-1 by Sweden. Schade.
Steeplejack
@CaseyL:
I think I heard “zoris” because as an Air Force brat I was around people who had been stationed in Hawaii, the Pacific and Japan. And we lived on Okinawa for three years in the late ’60s. Heard “thongs,” too, and later “flipflops.”
Amir Khalid
@J R in WV:
My inner Daffy Duck demands “despicable” be pronounced with a lisp. ETA: And plenty of spit.
plato
Ruckus
@germy:
Why so understated?
Don’t you know that they are afraid that the blackness rubs off, that if their kids met and get schooled with black kids, they will be fine with them and then all their racism will be for naught?
James E Powell
@CaseyL:
I grew up in Cleveland and now live in Los Angeles. I’ve heard flip flops and thongs, but never zories.
It appears zories comes from Japan so I’m surprised it’s not more common on the Left Coast.
Steve in the ATL
@plato: seriously? We all know exactly why.
That doesn’t make ok, of course—not at all. But we know why.
Steeplejack
@plato:
I liked the comment: “She’s his emotional support animal.”
Also: “I didn’t realize it was Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.”
plato
@Steeplejack: More like bring your mistress/arm candy to flaunt.
J R in WV
@Jay:
Milkshaked? Should have been gasoline!
Anyone who needs to keep their anti fascist leaning secret isn’t anti-fascist enough for moral people!!
chris
@plato:
debbie
@lamh36:
That is one powerful statement.
plato
J R in WV
@Mai Naem mobile:
Private Jet? Then the non white people (if any) will be servers, pilots, etc.
Wapiti
@James E Powell: When I was growing up in California (SF East Bay area) we called them zories. That was a while ago, and I think It might have changed as people got culturally aware.
sukabi
@lamh36: person over at Eschaton says the cartoonist is a freelancer, and he knows him. That it might be a contract not being renewed…that he’s going to talk to the cartoonist and see what the actual deal is. He speculated that the newspaper that dropped him may have run out of $$ to pay.
J R in WV
@Steve in the ATL:
Anyone who flies business class has PreCheck…
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
I know.
William Moakler
@Amir Khalid:
Canada was eliminated by Haiti at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@chris: Did she even make anything? My understanding was she just marketed other people’s stuff.
In any case, it’s fucking embarrassing to see that unemployable clown representing the United States. I can think of two reasons she’d be there. I’d like to think it’s to keep an eye on him because he’s losing it and the Mueller report has him more erratic and moody than usual, but I suspect it’s that her sense of entitlement is so extreme she thinks she belongs there. There are rumors they see her as a future presidential candidate and I wouldn’t be surprised if she and daddy are that deluded
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
I will join you on that… lisp and spit!
NotMax
@plato
So old can remember when she was on the Nazi’s watchlist. Neo Nazis Publish List of ‘Donald Trump’s Jewish Cabal’
bupalos
@NotMax: Might be a little equivocal. I mean, someone might interpret that as “see, even (the good) immigrants know that “America First!” is a great sentiment!”
I’m thinking more along the lines of pictures of dead bodies. But maybe I need to dial down.
Jay
@J R in WV:
Kamloops Pride is tomorrow.
Gonna be there.
Not carrying milkshakes.
GideonAB
@JimFoolish
Given recent history, I would not rule out her winning the presidency at some time
joel hanes
@bupalos:
Jackals help me out here
You might print up a stack of some of these Seuss wartime cartoons about “America First” and leave them about the area …
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-dr-seuss-satirized-america-first-decades-donald-trump-made-policy
(The one about Japanese-Americans, however, is truly shameful)
joel hanes
@Steve in the ATL:
I do three or four round-trips between California and Minneapolis-St.Paul each year.
I get precheck kinda randomly, but not more than once a year, and usually not both the outbound and return flights.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: oh nice.
pluky
@SiubhanDuinne: The Africans that ended up in Jamaica weren’t there for a stay in an all-included resort complex. A fairly good approximation of hell on earth was life as a slave on a Caribbean sugar plantation.
evodevo
@Ohio Mom: Exactly…they PUBLISHED it, right? Without seeing it? Or what? How come the editor didn’t get fired too?
evodevo
@evodevo: Oh, wait…never mind…premature commenting…should have scrolled down lol