Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Come on, man.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

This really is a full service blog.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

“But what about the lurkers?”

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Open Thread: Crown Princess Dunning-Kruger

Open Thread: Crown Princess Dunning-Kruger

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From the smirk on her face, absolutely. Eighteen months watching Daddy Dearest in the Oval Office, and she’s convinced she can finish off the important bits of the job — yelling at aides about their inadequate PowerPoint presentations, putting the arm on foreign dignitaries and potential celebrity donors — in an hour or two a day. So if she mindfully curates her twitter feed, she’ll be able to accomplish her “real” work (rigorous self-care, supervising the kids’ and Jared’s nannies) and still have plenty of time for celebrity tuft-hunting!

The Washington Post, “‘Surreal’: Ivanka Trump plays a prominent role in her father’s historic Korea trip”:

… The first daughter’s prominence in Japan and South Korea appeared to be by design — a sign of her influence with President Trump and the current absence of influential opponents within the administration.

It’s not clear, however, to what end.

Ivanka Trump shuttered her clothing business after joining the administration, although not right away, and has largely stepped away from her old life as an entrepreneur and social mainstay in New York. She and her husband, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, let it be known last year that they would remain in Washington and in the White House indefinitely.

Her ambitions are unknown — she demurs on any desire for public office…

Mostly, her prominence on a major foreign trip sends a message about who other countries should listen to or court, said Christopher R. Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and other nations.

“It looks to the rest of the world like we have a kind of a constitutional monarchy,” said Hill, who oversaw nuclear talks with North Korea at the close of the George W. Bush administration.

“It’s increasingly problematic in terms of our credibility,” Hill said. “It says to our allies, to everyone we do business with, that the only people who matter are Trump and his family members.”…

Ivanka Trump’s presence at the DMZ is particularly troubling, said Jenny Town, a North Korea specialist at the Stimson Center and editor of 38 North, a publication focused on North Korea.

“It was not appropriate for Trump to bring his kids to this meeting,” Town said. “But it was a weird mix of people on the U.S. side to begin with. What’s notable, however, is who wasn’t there: Bolton.”

Trump has sidelined or fired some professional national security advisers and undercut others, including at times Pompeo and Bolton. He has never publicly criticized or contradicted Ivanka Trump or Jared Kushner, although he has jokingly teased Kushner at times…

She’s unlikely to go to prison, but the sooner we can winkle the King’s Favorite out of the White House, the better.

“Very excited to talk about the deliverables”

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  3. 3.

    Citizen Alan

    People commonly say imagine if Obama is done this in response to something Fat Bastard has just done. You could just as easily say the same thing about Chelsea Clinton in response to every single time princess Ivanka is in the news.

  4. 4.

    Duane

    “The smirk on her face” lead me to look closely at Jarvanka. Don’t do it. She’s one of those hollowed-out, souless creatures from the Harry Potter movies.

  5. 5.

    Jerzy Russian

    Help me out here. What is the purpose so that “read out video”? When formulating your response, Keep in mind that I have no desire to view that video.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this made me chuckle

    Jeet Heer @ HeerJeet
    To put it another way, Obama/Biden was like Simon & Garfunkel. if you are an Art Garfunkel, the worst mistake you can make is assuming you can work as a solo act.

    It says something that I got a lot more pushback for this tweet from Art Garfunkel fans than from Biden supporters.

  8. 8.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @BGinCHI: Marie Antoinette made Marie Antoinette look like Marie Curie. She didn’t say the phrase most commonly associated with her in the popular imagination; “Let them eat cake” first appeared in the writings of Rousseau, who attributed it to an unnamed member off the French royal family. Marie Antoinette was nine years old at the time, and would have been appalled by the sentiment – she was in fact one of the most charitable members of the French royal family. I’m not trying to single you out – it’s a common misconception. Ivanka Dump is much worse. Compare her to one of the corrupt daughters of one of the caudillos or someone along those lines.

  9. 9.

    Mike in NC

    Instead of having her knock-off merchandise manufactured in Chinese prison sweatshops, Ivanka figured out it would cost even less to have them made by inmates in the North Korean gulag system. Priorities!

  10. 10.

    Leto

    @Citizen Alan: The absolute hate they threw Chelsea’s way. If she even looked like she was nearing anything political, the hissy fits that were thrown. And don’t forget all the shit they gave her for being a teen in the White House. The endless articles about her looks, criticizing her for everything she wore, her hair, everything.

  13. 13.

    GideonAB

    Not sure that that was such a great rebuttal by AOC. She was asked about her qualifications and she responded with, effectively, “I won”. Imagine Trump saying “I won” in response to a similar question. Not all winners are qualified

  14. 14.

    Cacti

    One of the most grating attributes of the entire family is that they think they’re all the products of meritocracy.

  16. 16.

    CarolDuhart2

    People don’t realize how unprecedented this really is. Let’s take out the Presidents whose kids were too young to go without a minder or babysitter: JFK, Carter with Amy (he has older kids), Chelsea, Shrub, Obama. You never saw LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or Daddy Bush take their kids along on stuff like this. Never.

    First of all, the kids were too proud and too self-aware to do so even if invited. This is like going on a parent’s business trip: nothing to do and no place for you anyway. You have no role, and scared of doing something that might interfere with what your parent is trying to accomplish.

    Secondly, you were never invited or welcome by the other guests. They don’t know you, and might not even like you anyway. You are just an extra burden as they have to somehow accommodate you at their expense, talk around you about subjects you have no business knowing about, an extra job for some aide who’s needed elsewhere.

    Only the Trumps have no manners or class enough to tag their worthless spawn along on something like this.

  18. 18.

    James E Powell

    This is all considered to be fine & dandy by the exact same people who would have done into armed rebellion if President Hillary Clinton had hired Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky to do anything at all in the federal government.

    We really do need to go to the mattresses.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    @debbie:

    What the fuck is she even saying in that last tweet?

    “I have memorized the MBA buzzwords Jared assures me are The Best. Hi, Daddy!”

  20. 20.

    FelonyGovt

    I have almost as visceral a reaction to her as I do to her father. The idea of this unelected, unqualified, untalented socialite representing our country abroad outrages me.

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    @SenyorDave:
    Does she have a fascination with glowy things? Because we can give her something better than that Saudi orb–a bucket of radium. #Curieous

  23. 23.

    Sloane Peterson's knee therapist

    Oh come on now. Give the girl a break. She was just circulating the room to see if anybody had candy.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    @GideonAB:On the other hand, it was important to point out the difference between an elected official and a nepotism hire. Also, she stuck the landing on a subsequent tweet:

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Look, is it just me, or is there something odd — “off” — about the way Jared walks? Pretty much every still photo that I have seen of him in motion shows him making a kind of weird little mincing step.

  26. 26.

    chris

    @CarolDuhart2: Look on the bright side, at least he didn’t bring the rest of the whelps. I’ll bet Queen Liz is still washing her hands while a footman burns all the gloves she wore.

  28. 28.

    chris

    Just gonna repost this threadkiller.

    Iceland seems to have lost the plot. Not only has it elected Katrin Jakobsdottir, a young, socially-savvy female as its Prime Minister, but it has also appointed someone who knows something about the environment as its Environment Minister. Whatever next? https://t.co/sPakoI5LJM— Peter Cairns (@PCairnsPhoto) 30 June 2019

  29. 29.

    Cacti

    Along with the nepotism and cronyism at the top levels, the Dotard wants it at the top and middle levels too.

    He wants to get rid of OPM (the Office of Personnel Management), whose function is to ensure that we have a professional, non-political civil service, and merit-based hiring. He wants to turn the entire civil service into a banana republic patronage system.

  30. 30.

    Mr. Kite

    @GideonAB: If you don’t think winning an election is *enough* to be qualified as a legislator in a democracy, what authority are you looking for? Some strong daddy to tell you it’s OK?

    FFS.

  36. 36.

    Cacti

    If you examine everything Trump does from the premise that he’s been ordered to hollow out the US as a superpower, most of what he does makes perfect sense.

  37. 37.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @GideonAB: I’d say her qualification for her job is that people elected her to it, which is a hell of a lot more than Ivanka Trump can say. AOC’s constituency looked her over, judged her, and gave her the job

  38. 38.

    Keith P.

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s the corset he’s wearing. I don’t know why nobody in that family seems capable of having a tailor properly fit their suits.

  39. 39.

    Ivan X

    she’s convinced she can finish off the important bits of the job — yelling at aides about their inadequate PowerPoint presentations, putting the arm on foreign dignitaries and potential celebrity donors — in an hour or two a day. So if she mindfully curates her twitter feed, she’ll be able to accomplish her “real” work (rigorous self-care, supervising the kids’ and Jared’s nannies) and still have plenty of time for celebrity tuft-hunting!

    This is amazing, erudite bile. AL, you are at the top of your powers!

  40. 40.

    zhena gogolia

    @Cacti:

    ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.

    I’m sickened by the look on Putin’s face. It’s the exact same expression as MBS. “Look what I’ve gotten away with! Just look what I do next!”

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cacti: that’s what Wee Marco was accusing Obama of with his “Let’s dispel with the notion…” line, wasn’t it?

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Keith P.:

    I know. I’m still having mild nightmares about the way they all presented at Buckingham Palace for the state dinner a few weeks ago.

  48. 48.

    GideonAB

    @BettyCracker
    I agree that “hiring” Ivanka is pure nepotism and worth you pointing it out. I just wonder about the wisdom of responding to a question on qualifications by talking about winning. I do like the tweet you gave. It actually shows she does have merit in that she recognizes healthcare as an important

  50. 50.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Megan Rapinoe 2020! I would pay to see her get in the face of Lady Ivanka.
    Dana White call your office.

  51. 51.

    jnfr

    @Leto:

    Still happens any time Chelsea says anything on Twitter. Which may be why I haven’t seen her post there in a while.

  52. 52.

    tobie

    I lost 30 seconds of my life watching Ivanka’s utterly vapid read-out of the convo between Trump, Modi, and Abe. The horror of seeing someone who looks and sounds like a computer simulation will take some time to wear off. It’s the reptilian undertone in her voice that makes you wonder if she’s human. The replicants in Blade Runner had more feeling.

  56. 56.

    chris

    Damn, Al, that was arisky click. Thanks for the new word.

    Definition of tuft-hunter. : one that seeks association with persons of title or high social status : snob.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Keith P.:

    I don’t know why nobody in that family seems capable of having a tailor properly fit their suits.

    They refuse to pay someone to do it properly. Those are $500 suits off the rack at Joe’s Suits and Stuff and they’ll be damned if they’ll pay a penny more for proper tailoring.

  61. 61.

    hmmmmm

    @CarolDuhart2: Richard Nixon had fantasies about Tricia marrying Prince Charles. On at least one occasion (perhaps a visit of Charles to the White House, but I wouldn’t swear to it) there was a rather embarrassing encounter between the two, with Nixon shoving hard from the background. It was noted at the time.

  64. 64.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Cacti: IIRC from HS course in 50s the creation of the civil service system we have today was considered a major accomplishment when it was set in place. NO MORE CRONYISM!

  67. 67.

    leeleeFL

    @Cacti: Well, if course he does! His favorite President was Andrew (victor/spoils) Jackson! A slave owner who orchestrated the Trail of Tears! What a Prince! I feel like I might toos my cookiesmost of the time lately, just thinking about the mess we are in.

  70. 70.

    Aleta

    Twitter staff for La Señora “Advisor to POTUS on job creation + economic empowerment, workforce development & entrepreneurship” worked harder on her Asia jaunt than the production team for Tp’s ‘since-we’re-over-here-hey-let’s-stop-by to show his unmistakably manly bravado’ commercial shoot in NK.
    (Taxpayer-sponsored ‘news footage’ becomes free campaign ad?)

  71. 71.

    waspuppet

    They’re there for the same reason you’d accompany an elderly parent to the doctor: They won’t understand everything that’s said or make a cogent decision.

  72. 72.

    HRA

    Baud
    I was very late from my errands and the thread was dead where you responded to my post about private health insurance. I appreciate the information you sent and am very thankful for having it.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @Rob:

    People are photoshopping her into the Abbey Road cover, Big Bang Theory, Megan Rapinoe celebrating, you name it.

    Some of these are very funny.

    Ivanka crossing the Delaware.

    Ivanka with the women from Hidden Figures.

  75. 75.

    rk

    Seeing Trump and Putin together yesterday made me think that I live in a time that the president of the US is a rapist and the president of Russia is a murderer. Think about that. A murderer and a rapist are two of the most powerful men in the world and no newspaper in the world says “accused rapist Donald Trump, President of the United states”.
    Why not?

  77. 77.

    Mary G

    "As the cameras flashed & Pompeo shuffled around, it took the first daughter a moment to realize he was trying to slide in. She eventually moved aside to let the secretary of state take his place between her and the South Korean first lady." W @betsy_klein https://t.co/knM4Ne7sVx— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 30, 2019

    What a disgrace.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @rk:

    Makes you wonder whether one day we’ll fall so far that we’ll have a president who fails to follow email management best practices.

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    I don’t tread there but doesn’t she also maintain a Twitter account under her post-conversion married name, Yael Kushner?

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Brachiator:

    Ivanka with the women from Hidden Figures.

    That was one I especially loved.

    I posted about five of the photos to my FB page with a comment that I truly believe Photoshop may be the single greatest invention of the past century.

    :-)

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    one day we’ll fall so far that we’ll have a president who fails to follow email management best practices.

    Oh noez!

  84. 84.

    Citizen_X

    @waspuppet:

    They’re there for the same reason you’d accompany an elderly parent to the doctor: They won’t understand everything that’s said or make a cogent decision.

    And Ivanka & Jared will?

  85. 85.

    Baud

    Vox

    Harris now polls at 12 percent, up 6 points from the previous week. This puts her in third place alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also polled at 12 percent, a one percent dip compared the previous week (a change within Morning Consult’s margin of error). Warren and Harris now stand behind Sen. Bernie Sanders — his support stands at 19 percent.

    Joe Biden remains in the lead with 33 percent; however, his support saw a decline nearly as steep as Harris’s rise — he lost 5 points following the debates. Some of this erosion of support may have been Harris’s gain, and a segment of Biden’s base does view the California senator in a positive light: 15 percent of Biden backers said they would pick Harris as their second choice choice of candidate.

  86. 86.

    CarolDuhart2

    @hmmmmm: Sure, when Charles came, he may have wanted to set her up on a date. But that was dating. I doubt she ever went with him as a diplomatic aide of some sort, or pushed herself in where she wasn’t wanted.

    Probably the same with Alice. She might have been a secretary of sorts, but like the First Lady, kept to her lane.

    This is different from any of that.

  87. 87.

    bobbo

    Trudeau’s eyeroll was so obvious, you could see it even though he was barely in the frame

  88. 88.

    Ohio Mom

    @(((CassandraLeo))): You may like to hear that I always say, If Marie Antoinette hadn’t said, “Let them eat cake,” someone would have had to make that up, because it’s such a powerful metaphor. And the proof that I am right is that someone DID make that up, it never happened.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Overheard at the latest Trump press conference:

    TRUMP: (Vigorously scratches elbow)

    CNN Guy: (sotto voce to guy next to him): Hey, why is Trump clawing at his elbow?

    AP Reporter (sotto voce to CNN guy): He’s got hemorrhoids. .

  92. 92.

    Gelfling 545

    @Keith P.: As they probably don’t pay their bills – at least we know Trump doesn’t – it’s probably the tailor’s revenge.

  93. 93.

    Ohio Mom

    @Brachiator: There’s something Walter Mitty-esque about Ivanka appearing in all those historic moments. Only in her daydreams does she accomplish anything.

  94. 94.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @bobbo:

    Trudeau’s eyeroll was so obvious, you could see it even though he was barely in the frame

    It actually shattered the screen of my iPhone into a million tiny shards.

  96. 96.

    Mary G

    Too mad to write much, just read thread, with receipts, how Manafort and Hannity conspired to turn public opinion, and Judge Ellis, don’t read if you’re relaxing.

    Lately I've been thinking about junkyard dogs. And lawyers.And what it must be like to know your client called you a junkyard dog lawyer – and that you lived up to that moniker. /1 pic.twitter.com/HAjrvgL47D— Tami Burages (@tburages) June 29, 2019

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Yes, it’s as bizarre as Mitt Romney’s mini steps. But it’s Jared’s voice that creeps me out. It’s so high pitched and nasal.

    Why are authoritarians always so fucking strange?

  101. 101.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Citizen Alan: Republicans don’t seem to care about the comparison. They appear to be perfectly okay with being bald faced hypocrites.

  104. 104.

    HRA

    I want to thank Baud for responding the other day with information on the subject of private payer insurance. I will see if whatever made me delete my first message as being already said will send this one on.

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Ivanka Kushner, child of Trump,
    Grew rich while she ripped off the nation;
    She smirked that she was not a frump,
    In her high station.

    Ivanka loved the days of old
    When cloth was cheap and labour cheaper:
    The vision of sham phony gold
    Set off her beeper.

    Ivanka sighed for bough and bower,
    And planned and schemed like a virago;
    She dreamt of evenings at Trump Tower,
    And Mar-A-Lago.

    Ivanka cursed the commonplace
    (Vogue and Elle and Glamour fester!)
    She missed the 1980s grace
    Of polyester.

    Ivanka Kushner, born too rich,
    From one thing to another drifting;
    Ivanka smirked, designed more kitsch,
    And kept on grifting.

  106. 106.

    feathers

    My assumption is that they are setting her up to run in 2024. She isn’t any less competent than her father, really. However, I also thought that his campaign might be setting her up for a political career.

    This is really why he needs to be impeached and the cronyism revealed and prosecuted. The earth must be salted lest this path be trod again.

    Seriously, leave the Russia and Mueller charges aside. Just go for the Trump family financial shenanigans.

  107. 107.

    Nora

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Actually, Lucrezia was a better person than her legend makes her out to be. She was more sinned against than sinning, and her real problem was her father and her brother, not her own actions.

  108. 108.

    peej01

    The only good thing about this whole Javanka thing (not to mention Tucker Carlson) is that it must be driving John Bolton nuts.

  114. 114.

    tobie

    @Mary G: I read that tweet thread yesterday and wanted to ask whether anyone at BJ knew of Tami Burges. I hope she writes her thread up as an essay eventually since that would make it easier to follow the astonishing connections she digs up. Essentially Manafort and Hannity schemed to find a way to influence not just the jury pool in the Manafort trial but Judge Ellis himself, who responded like a Pavlovian dog to every trap they set for him. As she points out Manafort was plotting the media campaign to exonerate himself with Hannity and FOX while under a gag order. Infuriating stuff. Like so many others, Ellis needs to be impeached.

  115. 115.

    Bill Arnold

    @MomSense:
    Re Jared, old (2017) but good:
    The 6 Worst Things We Learned About Jared Kushner From This Expose (Steven Davids, October 9, 2017)
    And it is about this scathing piece; the picture is good too:
    The Jared bubble – What my 18 months as Jared Kushner’s first editor taught me about the Trump family and the press (Kyle Pope, CJR, Fall 2017).

    It reminds me of a story often told by a writer then working for the Observer, who met Kushner, the man who signed his paycheck, for the first time at a cocktail party. The two of them chit-chatted until Kushner, in mid-conversation, turned and walked away. He had, he told the writer, found someone more important to talk to.

    I loath him for that sort of behavior, among other reasons. That he’s an observant Jew makes it much more offensive.

  116. 116.

    Jeffro

    @MomSense:

    Why are authoritarians always so fucking strange?

    If they were normal, they’d have to do normal things, like get along with other people and hold down a job and stuff. Their personality disorders make them unable to do that, so they go another route.

    It’s like my dad told me once, while we were watching some “dumb things criminals do” tv show: of course criminals do dumb things – if they weren’t so stupid, they wouldn’t be criminals. They’d find an actual line of work, etc etc.

  118. 118.

    Rand Careaga

    @Leto:

    And don’t forget all the shit they gave her for being a teen in the White House. The endless articles about her looks, criticizing her for everything she wore, her hair, everything.

    Let’s not forget that Saint John McCain joined in the fun twenty-one years ago, when Chelsea Clibton was eighteen: “Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly?” [McCain] told a handful of big Republican funders. “Because Janet Reno is her father.” More here.

  120. 120.

    Zinsky

    @rk: Exactly! How about “known sexual predator, Donald J. Trump” or “serial sexual assaulter Donald J. Trump”? Both would be apropos! I always use the “poor black man” comparison criteria in evaluating Republican misbehavior, as in – Can you imagine what would happen to a poor black man who had been accused of at least 18 separate cases of sexual assault on white women?? The answer is he would have been castrated long ago and/or be doing 25 years to life in prison!!

  121. 121.

    Bill Arnold

    This is one way that nepotism is reinforced – Ivanka Trump was just given the Internet Freedom Award. LOL. (Jack Morse, 2019-05-23)

    Ivanka Trump is now synonymous with internet freedom — at least according to a tech industry lobbying group boasting members like Uber, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

    “Thanks to Ms. Trump’s leadership, we have seen bipartisan support for increased opportunities and we are excited to present her with an Internet Freedom Award at this year’s gala,” IA President and CEO Michael Beckerman observed in a press release. “The Internet Freedom Award recognizes Ms. Trump’s extraordinary contributions to public policy and the internet economy.”
    The group, founded in 2012, has a members list that reads as a who’s who of the tech industry. In addition to the above listed companies, Twitter, Microsoft, Reddit, Match Group, Lyft, eBay, and Airbnb all belong.

    A tech lobbying organization feels the need to suck up to a POTUS to reduce the probability that said POTUS would attempt to damage its members. (They’re not wrong from a selfish corporate interests point of view; DJT has threatened some of them already.)

  122. 122.

    Ohio Mom

    @Bill Arnold: Jared and Ivanka aren’t observant, they’re Chabadites.

    (Sorry if that is too insider. The short version is, they belong to an ahistorical cult).

  123. 123.

    Jay

    San Diego Police brutally arrested a community activist for filming cops harassing a homeless mother w/ kids in Chicano Park.He was thrown to the ground, subdued & repeatedly punched by police.These cops need to be fired before they kill someone!Retweet the hell out of it. pic.twitter.com/yqSdz7KcNh— Grace Anderson ? (@darkhairme) June 29, 2019

  125. 125.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @GideonAB:

    I just wonder about the wisdom of responding to a question on qualifications by talking about winning.

    She is not talking about winning. She is pointing out that she is an elected official, which is a very important qualification that Ivanka does not have.

    @rk:

    Why not?

    Because that would reveal that the entire Republican Party is morally bankrupt, illegitimate, and white supremacist. You have to admit, that’s a Hell of a truth bomb to swallow.

  130. 130.

    Jay

    With the behavior of the police in Portland and the subsequent criticisms from anti-fascist groups, how do fascist activists talk and feel about police, and have any of these groups undertaken active efforts to win police sympathy? Fortunately, Unicorn Riot, a media collective that started in 2015, has spent years building a massive archive of leaked internal chat logs from various fascist, white supremacist, and far-right groups. The archive currently contains more than 760,000 Discord posts, covering a period from February 2017 to March 2018. Among many other leaks, Unicorn Riot recently published the Facebook group chat messages of the organizers of the second Unite the Right rally in Washington, D.C., led by white supremacist Jason Kessler. In total, this article’s author read through nearly 2000 posts that referenced law enforcement. Based on this information, we have determined that:

    Fascist activists have courted the sympathy of American law enforcement for more than a year.
    While many American fascists express hatred and distrust of the police, they all understand the value of working with and building positive relationships with law enforcement.
    Fascist activists actively encourage police violence against anti-fascists and regularly discuss methods of radicalizing members of American law enforcement.
    These strategies appear to be working.
    Before the particular topic of the relationship between American fascists and police force is discussed, it is useful to sketch out the dimensions and shape of the modern American fascist movement, which can largely be categorized by organizations established before and after 2016.

    https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2018/08/17/fascist-activists-spent-last-year-trying-win-police/

  133. 133.

    SFAW

    @GideonAB:
    I saw it as the equivalent of this

    When the RWMFs have nothing substantive, they go for the ad hominem bullshit. Posting her numbers was probably a better idea than tweeting “YAWN” or something similar

    And it’s not as if beating Crowley in the primary was a preordained slam-dunk.

  135. 135.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SFAW: AOC is more than 25 years old and has been a citizen of the US for at least seven years. She is qualified for the job.

  136. 136.

    Jay

    Today, Marshae Jones was indicted for homicide when someone shot her in the stomach while she was pregnant, ending her pregnancy. They said she "started it." The shooter went free. This what 2019 looks like for a pregnant woman of color without means in a red state. This is now.— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) June 27, 2019

  137. 137.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Gee, thanks, I was unaware of that.

    I was addressing Gideon’s comment re: whether her response to morons was optimal (or something).

    And, for what it’s worth: the use of “qualified” by the original morons related to whether she was qualified to have an opinion on the subject, because she was a bartender with two degrees that aren’t worth shit (in their opinion). But I’m guessing you already knew this.

  138. 138.

    SFAW

    @Jay:
    One would hope some judge, somewhere, would tell the DA toi go fuck himself for being a fucking moron and wasting the court’s time.

    Yeah, I know how likely that is.

  139. 139.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SFAW: I was just responding to you because you were the last person who had commented on the issue. Besides, sometimes it is fun to take these qualification things literally.

  140. 140.

    Jay

    Those curious about the missing #112

    At SF Pride today, SFPD brutalized peacefull Trans Protestors,

    Tortured them,

    Then misgendered them for incarceration, where they will be raped and assaulted.

  141. 141.

    SRW1

    @FelonyGovt:

    I have almost as visceral a reaction to her as I do to her father. The idea of this unelected, unqualified, untalented socialite representing our country abroad outrages me.

    At least the ‘unqualified’ accusation is unfair. Half of Ivanka once won an incredibly competitive swimming competition.

  143. 143.

    Procopius

    @(((CassandraLeo))): I’m thinking Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI. I suspect most of the people she’s accused of poisoning actually died from food poisoning (no refrigeration in those days), and she was reputed to be quite pretty.

  144. 144.

    Procopius

    @tobie: I think she’s using a voice effect called “vocal fry,” a kind of rasping in the throat. I’ve heard it described, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually heard anyone use it before. I find it very unpleasant.

  145. 145.

    J R in WV

    @GideonAB:

    She was asked about her qualifications and she responded with, effectively, “I won”.

    But AOC won 78% to barely double digits. Trump won by losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes — in other words it was only technically a win, and anyone with a shred of honor would have conceded, instructed his electors to vote for actual winner, Ms Clinton.

    I also thought G W Bush showed he had no sense of honor by taking office after losing to Mr Gore. Obviously unqualified by lack of honor, both of them. All republicans, really!!

    ETA: Plus she has a degree with honors in International relations and poli sci, IIRC… so pretty smart. Also won honors in HS science fair with pretty real research in bio chem. Very qualified in my opinion.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @J R in WV: I am sorry, but the way one is elected president is to win the vote in the Electoral College. We can put an asterisk next to his name because of how he won the EC vote, but in the end he had more the 270 votes in the EC.

  147. 147.

    J R in WV

    @Bill Arnold:

    That he’s an observant Jew makes it much more offensive.

    But is he an observant Jew, or does he merely go through some convenient motions to appear observant? That’s my take on these folks. Christ had some things to say about Jews in his world who went through the motions but weren’t really observant. He was a rabbi, remember…

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am sorry, but the way one is elected president is to win the vote in the Electoral College.

    Yes, we all know that, have know that since G W Bush’s election at least. That’s why I said he won technically, but not actually. Actually being elected means getting more votes. Technically being elected… that means getting the office on the technical grounds, and not getting most of the votes. Shameful in my book.

    @Ohio Mom:

    Jared and Ivanka aren’t observant, they’re Chabadites.

    (Sorry if that is too insider. The short version is, they belong to an ahistorical cult).

    Thanks for that information… no surprise there. Cultists – shocked, this is my shocked face!!

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