We’re in day three of Trump’s racist attacks on AOC et. al. The theme of today’s remarks from the trouser stain at the earlybird special is that “he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body”. So I guess he’s an invertebrate.
As far as I’m concerned, the Democrats are handling this well, and Trump is fucking up. But, some disagree. The other day, Steve M pointed out some tweets from Noah Smith to the effect that Trump is putting Democrats in a bind because, if they support AOC et. al. now, it will raise the question of why they didn’t support them earlier? Steve M’s post is a good refutation of this bit of concern trolling.
Steve M’s prescription for Democrats is for us to say that we’re a “big tent” party and we tolerate dissent. That’s a good use of a Reagan-era cliche. I also think that Pelosi’s vote on a resolution condemning Trump is a good vehicle to call out the cowardly Republicans (i.e., all of them) who are too afraid of their mouth breathing base to directly call out Trump. The more we beat the drum about the weak chickenshit antics of the little kids who hide in the corner while Grandpa bangs on the dinner table, the better.
Another lament that I saw somewhere is that this resolution is the equivalent of a sternly worded letter, and it will not shut Trump up, and therefore Democrats look weak. Well, maybe, but unlike Trump’s concentration camps and corruption, the racist bullshit he’s slinging is also just words. When somebody’s calling a friend or colleague names, the first (and maybe only) thing you can do is speak up in defense, quickly and forcefully. The key thing to note here is that Democrats didn’t hesitate.
On day 3, I feel as I did on day 1. Some of the very basic laws of politics have not been repealed, and Trump is doing himself and his piss-pants enablers no favors by running this into the ground.
Updated to add: I forgot another worry – that Trump is distracting us from Epstein, concentration camps, etc. Yes, and what can we do about it? The fucking media is going to report the tweets and push them into the forefront. We either shut up and take it, or we clap back, as the kids say.
Doug R
I like this resolution, especially if it calls out specific tweets and is easy to hammer with.
Another Scott
et. al.et al.I have no idea what long-term impact Trump[‘]s racist attacks will have. It’s summertime in DC and the election is a long way off. Even the Virginia general election is months away.
But it’s good he’s being called out on it and that the press is paying attention for more than a few hours.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Dangerman
Trump telling the truth for once; no racist bone at all since bones have no sentience. Racist brain/soul, yes, bone, no.
JohnPM
@The Dangerman: That was my first thought as well; racism lives in the vital organs (heart, brain, lungs, colon, etc.).
germy
– Brandi M. Carlile
smintheus
A banana slug, to be precise.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump “I am not a child molester – I am a racist low life!”
Well played Donald.
Roger Moore
This seems like a very reasonable take. One thing the Democrats can do beyond just clapping back over the tweets is that the Gang of Four (and other like Pelosi, who are also getting attention around this) can try to use the extra attention on them to bring the discussion back to those other issues. They can even directly criticize the news media for letting Trump distract them from those other, more important things.
ETA: And at least with Epstein, attempts to distract are likely to be short lived. When more salacious details come out, the news media will go right back to reporting them.
laura
There’s a reason he’s distracting from Epstein. What it is may be revealed as the investigation expands. Oh hey, Melania, weren’t you a “model” from an “agency” that allowed you to travel to the US for “modeling work” back in the day? Who owned the “agency?” Did the owner “know Jeff?” Asking for a “friend.”
Cheryl Rofer
The problem with the distraction theory is that yes, Trump’s latest behavior distracts from what he did yesterday. And the day before and the day before that.
But there is no bottom. Each behavior is as bad as, or worse than, the last. If he gave medals to a gaggle of his friends or went to Bottomfeeder, Arkansas, to dedicate a post office to his favorite Nazi, that would be distraction because the action is relatively trivial. (And look at what we can consider relatively trivial in these times!)
So yes, it distracts, but when the President of the United States tells Members of Congress to go back to where they came from, that requires pushback.
The courts and investigators will continue with Jeffrey Epstein. There is no firm connection to Donald Trump yet. It may be just as well that people don’t hear a lot of this to wear them down until the evidence arrives that yes, Donald was banging 14-year-old girls. Some things will go by the wayside because the press is distracted, but they will come up again in the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.
Jeffro
Nothing will shut trumpov up…I don’t think that’s the point. The point is to get Trumpublican members of Congress on the record defending/denouncing trumpov’s racism. Long overdue. Do it for every un-American, National-security-risking, path-betraying thing he does, Nancy Smash!
Yutsano
@smintheus: University of California Santa Cruz on line 2 for you.
lee
On this I think Pelosi is handling it well.
On some things I think she is missing the mark. I think she is entirely too dismissive of social media in general and ‘The Squad’ with social media specifically. Things move much faster now with social media. She might think she needs time to build a big coalition for impeachment or even a stronger stance against Trump & his minions, but with social media there is already a fairly strong coalition that is ready for moving against Trump et all.
cain
@Cheryl Rofer:
If he is found to be banging 14 year olds, his supporters will always say that in the old Testament they did the same so it’s all godly and Trump is the most christian president ever. /s
lee
@laura: I agree with this assessment. While there might actually be a link between Trump & Epstein and Trump knows it and is freaking out, it is not public knowledge. So there is little point in a distraction at the moment. Trump is just being his usual racist shitbird.
cain
@lee:
Social media is a bubble in itself. All those pepole inside social media bubble are all in a political clique. Same for us here. We don’t know what the average person is aware of. I think most upper middle class know what’s going on, but I’m not aware of others. But things like ICE doing raids should probably seep into the national consciousness but in what way I don’t know.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: I don’t care what his cult members think.
smintheus
@Yutsano: My wife is an alumna.
lee
@cain: mmmmm I’m pretty sure that ‘/s’ is actually not warranted. No one would be the least bit surprised if they went with that claim.
cain
@lee:
That’s going to be interesting if it does come out. I wonder what Pence is going to say? What will evangelicals say when their God touched leader is a racist pedophile white nationalist?
oatler.
Tweets will continue until he gets the bloody civil war Putin requested.
Kay
@lee:
Can’t both things operate at the same time, though? Can’t there some division of work? The squad does their marshaling thing and Pelosi does hers. I see the “leadership!” issue and I think that’s a valid complaint about Pelosi right now but isn’t part of what the squad hopes to do is push newer leaders to the forefront, right?
There just seem like SO many ways to make this alliance work that it seems a shame to set it in stone as hopelessly at odds with so little evidence that it can’t work.
She isn’t going to give them power. They’re going to have to get it.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
Yet apparently the powers that be do.. media wants to do expose on them (FYNYT), Republicans can’t make a move without being scared by them, and Democratic leaders for some reason still chase them as a possible way to reach out to them. The demographic that votes all the time apparently has all the power. They are literally controlling this country IMHO.
Roger Moore
@Cheryl Rofer:
One thing that I, and I think a lot of other people, are worried about is that Trump banging 14-year-olds will be forgiven just like everything else he does. His most deplorable followers will admit that they’d love to bang some 14-year-old girls themselves if given the chance, and the whole thing will be treated as one more example of Trump actually doing what “everyone” really wants to do. My less depressed side says that the kind of people who would excuse Trump that way were never going to change their mind no matter what, and that there are still enough people who will either change their votes or at least refrain from voting for him for it to make a difference.
Yutsano
@cain: The ONLY way anything could ruin Dolt45 at this point is if it’s proven he did in fact molest Ivanka as a child/teenager. I don’t think even his base could justify that.
I could also be horribly wrong…
cain
@lee:
Yes followed by a lament that we need to go back to those times and/or why do we have to be PC about it?
Zzyzx
@lee: I think the flip of that is that it’s really easy on social media for groups where – say – 5-10% of the population agrees to hang out and then think everyone is in your camp.
15-30,000,000 people is such a large population that it’s trivial to hang in that and not realize that it’s a small minority. Once that happens, it’s hard to not generalize to the general public.
Kent
I really think the Dems like AOC should be ridiculing Trump. Call him senile. Make him out to be that senile old uncle raging against the world from his rocking chair.
Make Trump come on Twitter and claim that he’s NOT SENILE.
As Lyndon Johnson once famously said about a campaign smear that his opponent screwed barnyard animals: “I know that,” replied Johnson. “I just want to hear him deny it.”
germy
@Yutsano: I suspect his base would justify and forgive whatever their media told them to justify and forgive.
Once their media turns on him (whether it’s fox or infowars or the federalist or whatever the hell they consume) they’ll turn.
jl
Noah Smith is a good macroeconomist, but i think when he gets into political punditry, he is lost in CW pundit-world thought, thinking that the mass of the voting population has the time or interest to reason through speculative game-theoretic rationality of possible reaction functions of each side. And, really? Can you blame the voters, they have better things to do with their time than waste it on such nonsense.
I think rude pundit is on to something, and I think it fits with my analogy, that Trump is falling, consciously or unconsciously, into reality show hissy-fit mode. And he either won’t be able to help himself out of it, or thinks it is a great winning strategy.
But look at Trump’s childish behavior and blatant insults and lies, which his base doesn’t care about but sooner or later more reasonable voters will. And especially compare that to the very good press conference the four Congresspeople gave yesterday in response to his ignorant racist smears. The cumulative effect of that kind of thing will build up. And the president saying things like ‘go back to your home country’ when it is a butt ignorant lie about three of the four Congresspeople and despicable insult to the fourth, who came here when she was six is not a good look for most voters. Let Trump keep it up.
If the Dems are in disarray (maybe, maybe not), Trump is coming to the rescue with his auto-humiliating ignorance, falsehoods, frenzy, and hate.
Edit: it was smart of the four Congresspeople to call Trump’s BS a distraction, to not wallow in self-pity or outrage, and to emphasize their focus on policy to improve the welfare of everyone in this country, while warning of the dangers Trump’s ignorance, incompetence, dishonesty and hate. They aren’t perfect, and Pelosi isn’t perfect. But compare their behavior to Trump’s.
cain
@Yutsano:
It’ll keep them quiet until the right wing noise machine finds some excuse or some other thing and the wurlitzer starts going spreading across social media a new gospel about Trump with an assist from Russian bot farms. Repeat it enough times and people will accept it. Any outrage will simply be “liberal outrage” or whatever it is and minimalized and even a reason to repeat it because it “owns the libs”. It’s like some stupid wedding where the bride for her wedding gown wore MAGA on it with an AR-15.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@cain:
Trump only won by a very number of votes in a few states last time and he had a lot of factors going in his favor, some of which won’t be around this time to give a boost. Don’t take anything for granted, but his fans aren’t all powerful
Humdog
@smintheus: have you ever gotten banana slug on you? I live in the land of banana slugs. A local store even makes ones made of white chocolate to eat! But if you get the banana slug on you, it sticks even more than normal slugs. And they are so big! It can take half an hour to rid a dog paw pad from slime, rubbing with alcohol or vinegar. Ugh! On the other hand, stomping on them with low tread rubber boots just makes for a slippery walk.
Here is hoping that, post Shitstain era, those who supported the slug have just as hard a time extracting the slime they smeared on themselves as I do getting dog paws clean.
lee
@cain: Sure I get that social media is a bubble, but that bubble encases a significant portion of the ‘younguns’ (and by young I mean people under 35)
jeffery
Trump is a slug. Apply salt.
lee
@Kay: Absolutely. But Pelosi’s dismissal of AOC and her ‘whatever’ make me think she is missing the mark on this.
Brachiator
A lot of white pundits, conservative and liberal, are natural born racism deniers. They are most comfortable talking about a news cycle or looking for a political framing.
The absolute worst idiots say shit like “it’s not racist unless he says the N word,” as though this epithet is the equivalent of SHAZAM! and will bring forth… something.
Trump is a racist president seeking to enact racist policies. He sees non-white people as vermin who don’t belong in this country and who must be kept out. He views the citizenship of naturalized people as conditional and subject to his approval.
His growing megalomania insists that immigrants, more than other citizens, must love America and must love Trump.
He of course loves stomping on women who oppose him, especially women of color.
He is cunningly trying to pivot from his own racism by pretending that he is only painting these women as extremists, but has he demanded that Bernie go back to where he came from?
Trump has always had a nativist agenda. He keeps trying to identify various categories of immigrants and to either exclude them from this country or to create new barriers to prevent entry.
The Squad are not unique. They are not his sole target.
He feels comfortable escalating his nativist rhetoric and believes that the country will be with him. He is openly racist and openly hostile to non-white people.
The only question is what we do about it.
Roger Moore
@cain:
There is definitely a social media bubble, but many figures in traditional media are inside it. That makes the social media bubble very important because it’s one of the ways that it’s possible to set the topics traditional media will cover. Look at how much influence Trump’s tweets have on the media environment, for instance. AOC was able to get enormous media attention on the situation at the border just by calling the camps there concentration camps.
David Fud
Resolutions get one step closer to impeachment. Insulting congresspeople directly gets us one step closer to impeachment. Keep it up, scum.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Kinda hard to go that tack when he literally told them to “go back to their countries”. Most people when trying to paint someone else as an extremist, just call them un-American and leave it at that. But Trump is an idiot and so are the mouth-breathers that make up his base, so I’m sure they’ll eat it up. Everybody else? No way.
Heywood J.
Trump explicitly mentioned that he wants to force “Democrats” to defend “The Squad” and therefore tie themselves to their radical commie socialist commie agenda. I like the counter-strategy of using that same exact moral calculus on his party — he’s a full-blooded racist, and all the excuse-making and chin-stroking and backroom denouncements won’t remove the taint [giggity] of association. They made this bed, they can fucking well die in it.
I had an acquaintance pull that “if they don’t like it, they can leave” horseshit on me the other day. The instant retort of “yeah, someone should told that to your moron-in-thief when he was whining about Obama for six years” felt better than it should. I mean, I’ve never been a good person, but this human centipede of an administration has really brought out the worst in me. I sincerely wish upon every one of these idiots all the worst things life has to offer them, for the rest of their long and pointless lives
zzyzx
I think Pelosi’s main concern is that we regained the House by flipping some fairly red districts. I think she’d be willing to lose that majority if it meant actually getting something important, but with no chance of impeachment resulting in conviction or any legislation passing, to what degree should she risk the majority on symbolic gestures?
jl
@Brachiator: It helps that the GOP is running the same con over and over again, and are relying on the same threadbare lies.
AOC, Omar, etc, are sinister commies, Bernie is a crazy old coot commie, Warren is a wonk commie, Harris is a disguised version of AOC, a commie, Biden is a commie.
And Scalise hinted yesterday that Trump’s Congressional flunkies are thinking about going along with Trump’s derange ignorance, dishonesty and thinly disguised hate and racism.
Fine. proceed, please.
And DNC cowardly consultants who worry wort about actually having a healthy and honest debate in the Democratic Party , out of fear of prompting attacks, should be ignored. Deranged dishonest attacks will come no matter what the Dems do. People will respect honest debate, and note the contrast. For people who are suspicious of the intentions and ability of AOC and her three colleagues, I urge them to watch their press conference yesterday. I think it was very good. If those are the extremists in our party, we are lucky to have them. AOC has problems, her jackass CoS being one of them, but far more people will see AOC in the news, than read her CoS’s BS tweets.
James E Powell
@cain:
Too true, and I believe we all forget from time to time and we confuse our conversations online with general discussions among the general population. I’m often shocked when someone I know shows a complete lack of awareness or concern about a subject that has been burning up the internet for a week.
Brachiator
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
People keep calling Trump an idiot as though this means that he is ineffectual. Not the same thing at all.
C Stars
Something that gives me hope is that it feels like the russian trolls are really coming out in force on this one. All of the local (liberal) newspaper’s comment boards are filled with accounts with names like “Virile Vitality USA” with passable English grammar, doing the whole, “Tell me one thing was racist about Donald Trump comments!!” song and dance. I’ve noticed when there’s a news story that’s playing badly for them in the media, the trolls come out without fail.
Barbara
@Heywood J.: “If they don’t like it then then can leave,” should be met with, “Why should they have to leave when they have the right to tell him they don’t like it?”
Yarrow
Speaking of “running that mouth,” Roger Stone is ordered off social media:
James E Powell
@cain:
They will say what they always say: vote for him to save the country from the God hating, socialist, baby killers.
Yarrow
@Yarrow:
More:
Barbara
@James E Powell: Well, technically, girls as young as 13 could be married in the OT, so really, not a problem at all.
RepubAnon
It’s true – Trump doesn’t have “a” racist bone in his body. Trump has 206 racist bones in his body…
Eric
Patriots don’t run; they fight
the Conster
@zzyzx:
Exactly. The ACA was worth it. What’s a failed impeachment accomplish? What does losing the House do? It’s the end of the country, literally. There’s no point in fighting for the Constitution on principle if our democracy is lost as a result. We have to beat him in 2020. The election is the only thing that matters and she knows that.
[Individual 1] mistermix
The excuse for Trump banging a 14 year old girl will be a simple one: she didn’t look 14. That’s an age-old defense.
TenguPhule
@Yutsano:
You would be horribly wrong.
They can justify anything.
mary s
@zzyzx: I agree with this. Pelosi knew the Dems would lose House seats over the ACA and she pushed for it anyway, against the advice of Rahm the boy wonder. I don’t think Pelosi is perfect — who is?? — and I think she’s not quite getting the generational thing (she’s old, in other words). But she’s highly skilled in many ways. And anyone who is not in the Trump/Repub camp is dealing with a very, very difficult situation. It would be nice if those of us who are not on the hot seat but are instead anxiously looking for some signs of hope and typing comments on our various devices recognized this, at least some of the time.
C Stars
@cain:
Well, they already know he’s a racist white nationalist, right? And he brags about sexual assault, and walked through women’s dressing rooms multiple times, and has cheated on all of his three wives, sooo… I also wonder whether pedophilia would bother them. Assuming irrefutable evidence comes out (which I doubt it will, mainly out of force of habit), DT and his minions will come up with some terrible smear about the child he violated, and then having established that she was a nasty hoor who deserved it, they’ll go on their merry way to bible group.
germy
Trump Supporters Worried Racist Attacks Against Progressive Democrats Just Talk
(Onion headline)
TenguPhule
@germy:
Not even then. Trump preemptively took an innoculation measure against that by creating the concept of “Fake News” where anything the media says is wrong if he personally says they are wrong.
WhatsMyNym
@the Conster:
The same crowd can then blame it on Speaker Pelosi.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
We can’t idiot proof anything because the universe keeps designing better idiots to compensate.
germy
@TenguPhule: Everything ELSE is fake news to them. They believe their own media.
Brachiator
@the Conster:
To the contrary. The two are inter-connected. Not fighting for the Constitution weakens democracy. Trump has clearly committed high crimes and misdemeanors.
It may be more pragmatic to skirt impeachment, but that choice still damages our democracy.
Another Scott
@lee: Pelosi was making a very specific point.
230 House Democrats voted for the House version of the border bill. Four voted against.
Nancy’s (recent) mantra is: “Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power.”
She’s right. Democrats have a stronger hand when they stick together. They should fight like Hell to get what they want in bills, but when push comes to shove they need to stick together as a party to get decent legislation passed.
She wasn’t criticizing their policy positions, she was criticizing their tactics and standing up for the 230 Democrats who stood together. The “squad” needs to listen and take account of her concerns.
That is all.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
jl
@C Stars: They fundamentalist End Timer preachers have already said it: God sometimes ordains flawed, even unsaved pagan, leaders to save the faithful. Plenty of Israelite kings in the Old Testament as examples, and a Persian emperor. Trump is the modern Saul, the modern Cyrus, both bad men raised up by God to save the faithful Jews.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Hence, Boris Johnson, probable new UK prime minister.
the Conster
@WhatsMyNym:
That’s my take on the whole thing too. All of these powerful white men and pundits who were more than happy to get us here by giving Trump cover and all the free air time while ignoring his criminal career, all screaming at her to impeach every time Trump and McConnell do something monstrous (every day) instead of screaming at Mitch McConnell and the other GOP cowards, would love nothing better to see her take the fall for a failed impeachment, while the white male media go all in on the Dems in disarray and can’t make the case to the American people argle bargle. It’s so predictable it’s laughable. Why anyone wants to see that happen, I have no idea.
Doug R
@Roger Moore: Senator Roy Moore would like a word.
germy
Wapiti
@Barbara: So a solomonic solution: Trump (and Epstein) must marry all of their victims, who then can sue him for divorce on the grounds of bigamy, with a claim to 1/(N+1) of the family fortune, where N is the number of victims. The +1 in the denominator is to ensure Trump (or Epstein) gets their share.
Another Scott
@WhatsMyNym: Exactly.
It’s kinda funny how the Senate Democrats refusing to support the House border bill and cutting the legs out from under her is now lost to the dustbin of history, while the “Pelosi v. The Squad Catfight!!11” just goes on and on and on.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@C Stars:
Racism and white nationalism are fundamental to some varieties of the Evangelical movement. No adjustment is necessary.
Sexual abuse of women and children is sometimes tolerated or swept under the rug and quietly ignored, as sometimes happens in other institutions.
jl
@germy: ” accusing the four progressive freshmen and their party of pushing the country toward socialism. ”
Well, at least they are not socialists, like Biden.
Democrats need to respond fearlessly to this garbage and have honest debates on policy. The Trumpsters and GOP will attack them with lies no matter what they say, or if they say nothing. if the Dems shut down honest debate, and issue political consultant approved babble, the GOP will make up lies and attack anyway, and the Dems will earn the voters’ contempt for appearing weak and passive.
Gravenstone
@Yarrow: He’ll just have his coterie of sycophants post his words for him. Same difference in the end. Just toss his fucking ass in jail already and be done with it until his trial.
ChrisS
@cain:
Antifa, the loose collection of anarchists and misguided social warriors, is the gift that keeps on giving to the GOP.
eemom
Heh, just won a bet with myself that if I came here I’d find gushing plaudits for Pelosi’s meaningless resolution and more stupid obsessing over her relationship with AOC.
Think I’ll put my next chips on the first hit for googling “deck chairs on the Titanic”.
C Stars
@Wapiti: I like it.
@Brachiator: @jl: Yeah, when the Epstein thing blew up anew last week I realized I’d have to steel myself for the next round of horribleness being a bunch of powerful white men managing to convince the media that raping children is actually just fine. I didn’t anticipate that in between we’d also have to get comfy with the fact that the president of the USA is an open and unrepentant white supremacist who plans to escalate his violent racist rhetoric for the next two to five years. But hey, so it goes.
C Stars
@eemom: Oh yeah, a heap more of petty internecine bickering will definitely help the Dems….
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator:
Thank you for pointing out that often overlooked truth.
Roger Moore
@Doug R:
If you ask Doug Jones, though, it wasn’t the underage sex thing that did Roy Moore in. Jones claims, and I suspect he’s correct, that he generally did better when he was able to focus the campaign on the issues. When it drifted back to the underage sex stuff, a key group of persuadable voters swung back to reflexively supporting Moore against what they saw as unfair attacks by the liberal media.
Another Scott
@laura: Remember that Donnie owned the Miss Universe Organization conglomerate for a long time. RollingStone:
Yeah, he was just “joking”, I’m sure…
He has a history of treating people as disposable pieces of meat. Whether he did that with Epstein or not, I have no way of knowing. But, …
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
oldgold
Dark underbelly? This is not dog whistling. It is a rancid racist rubbish being shouted through a
bullhorn.
rikyrah
Emmy nominations: Game of Thrones and Veep score big in final seasons while Central Park Five drama When They See Us gets SIXTEEN nods
Game of Thrones and Veep scored major nominations for their final seasons when the Emmy nominations were announced on Tuesday
The Big Bang Theory did not get any major nominations for its final season, and Julia Roberts was snubbed for her work in Homecoming
A number of Hollywood stars were nominated, including Michelle Williams, Sam Rockwell, Amy Adams and Mahershala Ali
Schitt’s Creek, Fleabag and When They See Us also did well with Emmy voters
Game of Thrones earned 32 nominations setting the record for the most nods ever for one season
HBO led with 137 total nominations, followed by 117 for Netflix and 58 for NBC
By CHRIS SPARGO FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:49 EDT, 16 July 2019 | UPDATED: 13:52 EDT, 16 July 2019
Another Scott
Popehat gets it:
Read the whole thing. It’s short.
Cheers,
Scott.
the Conster
@Brachiator:
She’s fighting for the Consitutional oversight powers that Article I gives Congress, without calling it impeachment. If the courts need the word impeachment for the House to conduct its oversight, then we’ve already lost. The executive branch will never comply with any Congressional request ever again.
jl
@C Stars: I’m not so worried about petty intraparty squabbles. Both parties have them. Main problem is that the corporate media portrays hem in different ways. Dem squabbles are always signs of weakness and disarray, while. GOP squabbles are always bracing and exciting struggles between vying Masters of the Universe, contests among the political Gods! I don’t know why, maybe cowardly attempts of media to keep reactionary crazies off their back, maybe just lizard brain reflexive admiration of abject corporate hacks for abject political hacks, since they are twins in mind spirit and soul.
i have to wonder how much 2020 will shape up as a replay of 2016, largely due to Trump’s vile character and the GOP’s complete lack of new ideas. The GOP attacked the antics of Antifa then, the Dems were worried about the then Dem nominee AOC running around the country campaigning for her allied nominees and thereby providing an inviting target for idiot GOP red-baiting, the supposedly good, supposedly Trump economy was supposed to swing things in GOP favor. The GOP thought it had a great wedge issue in bashing immigrants, particularly immigrants they labeled as non-White and foreign and sinister.
How did 2016 work our for the GOP. And chances that the economy will be in as good a shape a year from now are not high. Trump has been riding on the Obama macroeconomic policies, except that they threw in an unpredictable wrench into it with their tax cut, which so far has been so counterproductive there is evidence that it is reducing Gross National Income, which is the measure of how much ordinary people see in their paychecks every month. Signs of a growth recession or real recession in next year growing, despite good unemployment and job numbers (but which have usually been revised downward later), but they are a lagging indicator of a turning point, not good for forecasting the future. The problem of only sporadic noticeable growth in real wages continues.
If Trump and the GOP think replaying 2016 is a good strategy, that is fine with me. So far, looks like they are.
MaryLou
Thanks for your defense of Speaker Pelosi vs. the pseudo-progressive useful idiots who one minute, seem to think she’s the supreme executive who, simply by opening an impeachment inquiry, can remove Trump from office and the next minute, vilify her as demonstrating weakness when she does the one thing she actually has the power to do, which is bring forward a resolution condemning Trump. I firmly believe that the ‘left-leaning’ twittersphere is heavily larded with fifth-column types (Russian? who knows?) whose mission it is to turn Dems vs. each other. The loud condemnations of Pelosi in the last couple of weeks strike me as too extreme to be simply the ‘herding cats’ discussions typical of true lefties.
rikyrah
Saw yesterday that the New Mexico authorities were investigating. Look at the pictures of his ranch…totally isolated…
Nothing good happened there.
TenguPhule
@the Conster:
Do they look like they’re complying now?
scav
@eemom: Jaysus, if your criteria for prophetic success is the supposedly universal “gushing” over Pelosi demonstrated in the coments in this thread, well then you’ve got quite the personal excersise regime going with patting yourself on the back. When do you find time to do anything else with that arm? Oh wait, all you need is a single comment to validate your self-esteem. With this lot, one could do that with about any prediction.
TenguPhule
@MaryLou:
This is factually wrong.
the Conster
@TenguPhule:
No, they’re stonewalling, which is why Pelosi is getting the courts to back Dems up. What magic is in the word *impeachment* that will compel the WH to comply?
C Stars
@jl: Well, thanks for that optimistic opinion. I’ve been needing one. I don’t think that these squabbles will have much of an effect on the election in 2020 either. And Trump’s main trajectory seems to be straight toward crazytown at an increasing velocity, which in the long term probably won’t win him many votes. I worry a bit that the strategy is not about winning over votes, but ginning up the base so much that large-scale voter intimidation/suppression ensues. But that’s going to have to be a worry for another day; I need to go take a nap.
Jay
TenguPhule
@the Conster:
As has been repeatedly explained before, the House Committees have a stronger legal case they can make before the courts during an impeachment inquiry. Any Banana Pants Republican Judge who sides with Trump regarding an impeachment inquiry’s document production request would be making a picture perfect case for their own removal from the bench once rule of law is reestablished by a new Democratic Administration and DOJ. All of this jockeying around for the moral high ground is for what comes after the rubble settles and the fighting stops and the trials and convictions start. Yeah, the White House is not going to comply no matter what, we have to start planning now for what needs to be done for the future.
TenguPhule
If you had any questions as to whether she’s a Republican in sheep’s clothing, put them to bed.
Chief Oshkosh
@cain:
They’ll say “Our God-touched leader is a racist pedophile white nationalist.”
Duh.
Going forward, to save time, the answer to “What will evangelicals say when their God-touched leader is a ______________” is, and always will be:
“Our God-touched leader is a ______________.”
Just fill in the blank. It does not matter what the content is. Just fill in the blank.
Heywood J.
@Barbara: Yeah, the variation on the classic Office Space Michael Bolton line: “Why should we leave, they’re the ones who suck!”
the Conster
@TenguPhule:
The WH stonewalling an impeachment inquiry will mean the House goes back to the same courts to request the same enforcement that they”re already requesting the courts enforce? That’s the plan?
Jay
@ChrisS:
Another Scott
@the Conster: She should have clapped harder at him at the SotU.
That would have done it, I’m sure!!1
Cheers,
Scott.
TenguPhule
I assume the only reason she married him is to take advantage of his political connections. So he has something in common with Trump.
Anonymous
@cain:
Don’t you mean “What are evangelicals saying now that it is more obvious that their God touched leader is a racist pedophile white nationalist?”
I think the 14-y-o wives in the Bible is close to the mark, actually. And the Old Testament is full of racism and God-required genocide as well, so they’re all prepared to accept that BS from Trump. Aka Dolt 45, I love that, thanks whoever first said it!
I’ve been re-reading bits of the Bible lately, and OMG it is so much worse than I remembered from reading it decades ago. Partly because I’m more aware of those crimes happening today, again, still just after the big Genocide in Europe, 1938-45. Never again, right!
But it’s all right there in the Bible, kill all the men, take the women as concubines and the kids as slaves. No distortion needed, spelled out in plain Old English in the KJV — or plain American English in the newer editions.
Never again. Ha! It’s baked into their religion if you look closely.
Brachiator
@the Conster:
What oversight is being exercised here? Waving at the president and saying “I see you?”
I have no idea why you are referring to the courts here. The Constitution itself is clear on the function of impeachment.
It’s not as though the executive branch is complying now. And Trump is pretty much asserting not just executive privilege, but executive supremacy.
I accept for now the pragmatic decision not to pursue impeachment. Infinite bash or support Pelosi raves don’t do it for me.
Still, the arguments against Impeachment are pretty weak.
NY Robbin
@cain:
Well, nobody’s perfect and he is chosen by God after all . . .///s
I wish I was kidding . . .
the Conster
@Another Scott:
LOL.
hitchhiker
@Kent:
I agree with this. I also want lots of public figures to say things like, “What does a family do when their strange uncle comes to dinner and sits at the table belching and grabbing food from their plates? In my family, we gently ask him if he’d like us to pass the potatoes. We don’t give him our checkbooks and a megaphone so he can spend all our money and go terrorize the neighborhood with his burps.”
Have they attacked the office? No. Have they attacked him? No, unless you think they were talking about him. And why would you think that?
TenguPhule
@the Conster:
The courts would (presuming they’re still working correctly) have to make a decision more urgently, again, because stronger legal case and historical judicial recognition of the importance. Again, either the courts will either put the Constitutional Crisis of the Executive Branch refusing to be held accountable by the legislative branch to the fore or we find out that there is a Constitutional Crisis at the Judiciary because the judges are ignoring the clear wording of the Constitution.
In either scenario, we are better off then we are now because we’ll have better information to work with then we do now.
Barbara
@Heywood J.: Or, “If HE doesn’t like what I say back to him then HE can leave!” Kick it up a notch!
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
Vote him OUT~!!~ and then prosecute him for all the corruption AND the racism, which is illegal, actually. One more reason for the impeachment vote just before the election. Note the time I call out, over a year from now!
the Conster
@Brachiator:
Here’s a list of current investigations. as of May.
The courts are backing them up.
Courts are slow, and the Committees are being deliberate. Screaming at Pelosi is idiotic.
TenguPhule
Loyalty test. Well, Pelosi might net some fish in this net after all.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Unfortunately, the last two episodes of “Game of Thrones” were terrible, and I think this will hurt them in the acting categories. Peter Dinklage might still score a win.
I still have to catch up with Fleabag, which I’ve heard great things about.
Gin & Tonic
@Anonymous: Not just “their.” Spend a bit of time reading about the Borgia Popes.
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
But before that you need the inquiry, the presentation and months of examination.
We’re still waiting for all of the things before the vote itself to be initiated by the Speaker.
jonas
At least Trump is signalling that for the upcoming campaign, he’s gonna dance with the one who done brung him the whole night through — namely his solid base of deplorable evangelical bigots — and screw reaching out one millimeter beyond that.
the Conster
@J R in WV:
Yup. The election gets rid of Trump and Pence, and could get rid of McConnell or at least his majority control. It’s the only real play to stop the madness.
Mandalay
@rikyrah:
Why “conduct with minors” instead of “conduct with children”? Even now our failed media continues to give Epstein a soft ride.
TenguPhule
Utah’s great white hype, ladies and germs.
TenguPhule
@Mandalay:
Legal term. Actually not a failure of the media.
Another Scott
OO, is that you??:
#StrongerThanRmoney
Cheers,
Scott.
TenguPhule
In a normal timeline, Conway’s ass would be road kill by now from all the buses running over it.
Brachiator
@the Conster:
I have been very clear here and in previous posts that I refuse to indulge in Pelosi bashing over impeachment.
It says much that you still tried to go there.
Miss Bianca
@cain: If it turns out that Trump did, in fact, rape 14-year-old girls, all that his base will have to hear is that they were from liberal families, and that will be it – those girls will have deserved it. Hell, those girls ASKED for it.
I wish I thought I was joking.
Roger Moore
@Anonymous:
Strictly speaking, the KJV is in early Modern English, not in Old English. Old English would be like Beowulf. /pedant
TenguPhule
@Another Scott:
prostratedragon
@Another Scott: I seem to recall that Justin Volpe, the cop who broomed Abner Louima, had a black girlfriend. No, one’s associations don’t give automatic virtue.
TenguPhule
@Miss Bianca:
You’re not wrong. I also predict they will be explaining to us how the legal age of consent is 12-14 according to the state of their personal preference.
James E Powell
@Roger Moore:
I’ve never known a successful candidate who didn’t say this. No matter what he says, without the underage sex thing, Doug Jones doesn’t get within a blue mile of Roy Moore.
Miss Bianca
@Heywood J.:
Ooh, I’m squirming now. From slugs to centipedes, aagh…!
J R in WV
And glancing at the news headlines just now, I see that Kellyanne Conway has jumped into white nationalism with both feet:
This was an href=”https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-adviser-kellyanne-conway-asks-reporter-what-s-your-ethnicity-n1030406″>NBC report.
Feinberg is quoted in a tweet that includes 4 flag emojis referring to his ethnicity, which doesn’t inform me at all, perhaps others can help us out:
Of course one of the best things about this is that Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is far more American historically speaking than Donald J Trump is. Trump is only second generation American, while Ms Pressley is probably 6th or so generation American — just a wild guess of course regarding Ms Pressley.
But we know that Trump’s grandfather Herr Drumpf was born in what is now Germany, NOT America, and his Mom was born in Great Britain, NOT America.
But he’s far too stupid to notice that Pressley is more American than he is.
Jay
Greg Sargent via Digby,
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/07/no-racism-isnt-big-winner-in-diverse.html?m=1
Dolt45 is doubling down on his winning stratergy from the 2018 Midterms.
TenguPhule
@Miss Bianca:
Ah, you haven’t heard about the movie then….
Martin
@cain: Conservatives don’t choose their politics based on their religion. They choose their religion based on their politics. See the 10 year period where the southern baptists submitted an amicus in support of Roe as it would help poor women, to a decade later when they were okay with shooting abortion doctors in the head.
Everything Trump does is sanctioned by the Bible for all values of ‘everything’.
Another Scott
Wonkette on the 9th Circuit and 11-dimensional chess and the Clean Water Act:
Good, good.
But we have to continue to fight them every single day…
Cheers,
Scott.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Brachiator:
I’m so glad that’s what you took away from my comment. That’s not what I was saying. He’s only effectual because he has enough people around him with enough neurons to to carry out his orders or use him to advance their own agendas.
On this issue, he absolutely is not going to win with a majority of voters
Jay
@TenguPhule:
@J R in WV:
NotMax
@TenguPhule
FYI, from this time last year
Yes, Hellmann’s has frozen over. Mayonnaise ice cream is here.
:)
:)
glory b
@lee: What she needs is not a lot of AOC’s twitter followers, but votes from her chamber.
I work in Connor Lamb’s district, I can tell you that there isn’t any overwhelming desire for impeachment here.
In any event, as a tactic, she should wait. Otherwise, we have a vote McConnell won’t allow it to go to the floor, or the Repubs vote it down, and Trump does the victory dance until the election, by which time it will be far away in the public’s rear view mirror.
We know this will be the result. We might as well have the details fresh in voters’ memories.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
I guess I’ve got time myself…
Polish, Columbian, probably Russia, and Austria is what I could do with Google images. Pretty good American mixture if you ask me.
Kellyanne said she was Irish and Italian, which is as meaningless as is Mr Feinberg’s mixture. Shows that Kellyanne has issues, though, just asking the question, which is none of her business whatsoever. Antisemite, anyone?
JoyceH
@J R in WV:
“But but but… ! How is that even possible?! I’m white and she’s not!”
I’m in the camp that believes that Trump launched this latest controversy to draw attention away from the Epstein thing. But Trump lacks the deftness to do it correctly, and he went way overboard. And being unable to back down, he makes it worse every day – and meanwhile, in the background, the Epstein case keeps churning, and law enforcement officials are quietly cataloging evidence. Epstein will be the thorn in the side that keeps popping up and spitting out another rancid news cycle for a long, long time.
Miss Bianca
@TenguPhule: Oh, yes I have. And “heard about it” is as far as I want to go.
Jay
Hoodie
@oldgold: I don’t get what Conway’s doing here. Are they so desperate that they feel they have to go full metal Klan? Conway strikes me as someone totally driven by political calculation, even racism is an act for her. Internal polling must be really bad or one or more of the investigations is really close to something really bad for Trump. Much of what they’re doing is straight out of the Nixon early 70’s playbook, except with even more open racism. However, the context is wildly differing in terms of history, demographics, etc. Whenever I hear Trump, I come away thinking he is hopelessly mired in the 70’s, e.g., fact free rhetoric about non-existent crime waves, shit-hole cities,etc. Hell, he should know that NYC is a lot different now than the late 70’s. That’s true for a lot of cities. Although there is a core that will go for that, it would seem to be a questionable strategy overall since Trump won an electoral college squeaker in 2016 while Nixon had a landslide in ’72 running against an arguably more left wing Democrat (for that time) and Democratic Party while we were still in Viet Nam, deep in the Cold War and coming off of massive demonstrations about civil rights. Reagan engaged in some dogwhistle in ’80, but nothing like this.
japa21
@Mandalay: The was the lawyer speaking, a direct quote. I believe minor would be the legal term required in this situation.
hueyplong
No matter how repugnant, no action by Trump is a bridge too far for his base unless FoxNews says it is.
No need for complicated caveats.
Roger Moore
@J R in WV:
It’s not stupidity, it’s bigotry. In Trump’s book, and that of his strongest supporters, whiteness is central to American identity. Your ancestors may have been here since before there was a USA, but if they were the wrong race you’re less American than Seb Gorka.
Jay
J R in WV
@zzyzx:
Impeachment could have a large or even huge effect on the election in November, 2020, depending upon what is revealed in the Impeachment Inquiry itself and the timing of those hearings. We know it won’t lead to a conviction with the currently sitting Senate and that it won’t afffect important legislation with that same Senate.
But the election, the voters? If the House votes in late October, perhaps just as early voting begins? The “exoneration” by the Senate following really juicy House impeachment hearings could work as well for the Democratic candidates as the Impeachment itself, if it makes the Republican Senators look like co-conspirators. Which it may in the hands of a skilled prosecutor like Senator Harris.
Jay
@Hoodie:
Dolt45’s MalAdmin and “Erection” Campaign is staffed with:
Nazis,
Grifters,
Nazi Grifters,
Pedo’s,
Rapists,
Dolt45 thinks he won the 2018 Midterms by selling racism.
TenguPhule
@NotMax: I remember reporting about that here. One of the few times Omnes agreed with me.
The Moar You Know
@cain: “I don’t give a shit. He’s living his best life. I wish I was half the man he is.”
A “racist pedophile white nationalist” is what evangelicals aspire to be in their wildest dreams.
NotMax
@J R in WV
Mid-October at the latest, as the Capitol is pretty much deserted for the pre-election recess in the weeks immediately before Election Day.
J R in WV
@RepubAnon:
Oooh, Ooh! I got this.
206 racist bones PLUS those Bone Spurs!!!
Dorothy A. Winsor
The rotating tag I just got was “F*ckem.” My heart twinged a little.
opiejeanne
@Barbara: Technically, girls as young as 13 can be married right here, in these United States.
“….Although in …..states there is no set minimum age by statute, the traditional common law minimum age is 14 for boys and 12 for girls – ages which have been confirmed by case law in some states.[3]…”
“In 23 states, children under 16 can marry. Over the past 15 years, more than 200,000 minors married in US, and in Tennessee girls as young as 10 were married in 2001,[4] before the state set a minimum age of 17 in 2018.[5]”
laura
@Another Scott: another Scott, here’s the link to Roadie brother the younger describing his experience with the acting president while he was the tour manager and guardian ad litim of the then underage c Aguilera:
https://youtu.be/uKWH7QQrsDg
smintheus
@Humdog: Yes, exactly, there’s no escaping the banana slug slime once you’ve laid down in it.
Another Scott
@laura: Um, wrong linky perhaps? That seems to be a bunch of hosers sitting around a table talking about April Fools jokes.
Cheers,
Scott.
les
@MaryLou:
assertion without evidence strikes again. Pelosi is not in fact a flawless saint, nor she who may not be doubted.
les
@the Conster:
Because obviously nobody like Donald Trump could ever be elected president.
Fuck me to tears.
The Moar You Know
@lee: How many votes does social media get in the House? The Senate? I forget.
Social media is a chain of idiots being led around by slightly less stupid idiots wielding bright shiny objects. It is a dumbshow, a meaningless exercise by people who choose to be futile.
Hoodie
@Jay: no doubt true, but I don’t see why cockroaches like Conway are not scurrying away. Several others (Ryan, Haley, etc.) already have. Maybe she thinks it will burnish her credentials as a soulless creature who knows no limits in debasing herself to serve power. Those kind of people can have a certain usefulness. But she has to know it’s a high risk electoral strategy. Why the fuck pick fights with women of color when you don’t need to? Why push caging little kids? You have an ostensibly good economy. It’s got to be bad internals and/or some really bad shit on the horizon on the Mueller/Epstein front. Maybe something related to the CNN story on Wikileaks being a Russian asset?
Citizen Alan
@Martin:
Can you or somebody else give me a cite to that? I would really like to read it, but I can’t find it online.
Jay
@Hoodie:
Before Conway had her “polling company” and hitched her star to Dolt45, she worked for FAIR, an Anti-Immigration/White Supremacy Org.
She’s a true believer.
Conway, Gorka, Inghram, Bannon, etc are the Quiet Nazi’s. Their proteges are the mass murderers.
laura
@Another Scott: nope, that’s it. It may not be your cup of tea, but the Trailer Park Boys is ‘a thing’ and in the midsts of shenanigans, brother the younger describes his interactions with donald and it’ll make you want to vomit. President is a stone cold sex pest.
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: You know what? I am going to have to jump on your comment with both feet. A first generation American is no less American than someone whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower. End of story.
Jay
@Hoodie:
Keep in mind, as much as the Dolt45 Maladmin is gaslighting America, they are also gaslighting themselves.
The #1 rule of ReThug Politics, used to be that the Koolaide was for the base, and to never drink it yourself.
The current crop of ReThugs drink it by the gallon.
Dolt45 actually believes he won the 2018 Midterms.
And after almost a year of bootspittle licking and saying “yes you did, Sir, greatest midterm victory ever!”,
They have come to actually believe it.
Jay
And they are saying the quiet parts out loud now,
MisterForkbeard
@laura: Do you have a timestamp for the Trump part? I don’t really want to watch for 35 minutes :(
les
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/07/dems-in-legitimate-disarray@Citizen Alan:
Try this:
les
@Citizen Alan:
Dammit. Try this:
les
@Citizen Alan:
So, I guess the link thing is broken. This? https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/02/18/the-biblical-view-thats-younger-than-the-happy-meal/
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
All minors are by definition children.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks. I have seen this type of comment repeated elebenty times. The unspoken assumption is that a naturalized citizen is less of an American compared to the ones who have n generations of ancestry in this country.
JoyceH
@Jay: Precisely. Back in the 90s, in the Gingrich era, the GOP started peddling flat out lies to their base. Jerry Falwell the elder was hawking The Clinton Chronicles, a series of libelous videotapes, on his RELIGION show. He admitted that he didn’t even believe them! But they were for “opening the discussion”. The lies were for the rubes, and the rubes were just supposed to vote. But then, hey, the rubes raised on this libelous disinformation didn’t just sit at home and watch tv and vote. They started running for offices themselves. That’s why no Republican Speaker in the last twenty years has been able to manage his caucus. Because there’s this solid core who have been raised on what the cynics were feeding the base, and they believe it all.
MattF
Alexandra Petri explains why it’s so difficult for Republicans to criticize Trump:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/15/why-i-have-yet-denounce-presidents-racist-remarks/?utm_term=.75d3c44c979e
rikyrah
Amene (@Ange_Amene) Tweeted:
The erasure of how this all began is what’s detrimental.
Pelosi took concerns to her members in PRIVATE, AOCs feelings got hurt so she went to media about it, Pelosi stopped addressing the shit and then got told she was stifling WOC. BULLSHIT. Then Trump jumped in like he does. https://t.co/45r95e3zgw https://twitter.com/Ange_Amene/status/1151209522892922880?s=17
laura
@MisterForkbeard: sadly no. Maybe 20 minutes in.
Uncle Cosmo
@J R in WV: Those flags are Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, Austrian. Par for the course for someone of Ashkenazic Jewish ancestry, which a surname like “Feinberg” strongly suggests.
MisterForkbeard
The “Trump is a racist” resolution is apparently having issues. Apparently according to House rules, you actually aren’t allowed to ever say that the President is racist or has done racist things.
Despite the fact that Nancy Pelosi cleared this with the Parliamentarian beforehand, she’s still getting a lot of crap from Republicans and the vote might be held up.
randy khan
The theory that it’s intended as a distraction misses the simple point that he does this sort of thing constantly – to say that it’s tied to something else that he wants us to forget assumes too much about intentionality.
More to the point, though, he also essentially killed the “Dems in disarray” story from last week, and gave them something to unite around to show that they are in solidarity.
randy khan
@MisterForkbeard:
Really, the Republicans are objecting to a resolution against racism on procedural grounds? That’s not a good look for them.
jimmiraybob
Mitch, the Stain’s KY spokesman, is mad that people are calling a thing a thing. Therefore, all people calling a thing a thing, not the thing itself, are at fault. The thing and the builders of the thing are tired of your disrespect and call for the cooling off of the rhetoric while they operate and enhance the thing.
If you guessed “concentration camp” is the thing then you’ve won.
There is a difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp. The former is the preliminary solution to a perceived state problem. The latter is what happens if there’s no opposition.
Mnemosyne
I’m starting to suspect that Pelosi is going to slow-walk impeachment talk until Labor Day when everyone — including the press — is back from summer vacation.
She’s not going to roll that product out prematurely and risk it getting lost in the shuffle.
ETA: Just looked it up — Nixon’s hearings started in February of 1974.
bemused
Ha, ha. Reporter asked McConnell if it would be racist if someone said to his wife, Elaine Chao, “Go back to your country”.
jimmiraybob
@randy khan:
Could it have been a trap set by an evil genius? Bwahahahahahhahah! Cue thunder and spooky organ music.
Brachiator
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Trump is the freaking president. He can wield that power however he likes, as long as the GOP leadership backs him.
I have no idea why you think that his supposed stupidity helps deflect the impact of his actions.
Uncle Cosmo
@J R in WV: Just FTR the Irish- and Italian-American communities are soaked in bigotry & racism. (I speak with some knowledge, having spent decades hanging out with elements of the former & being a 2nd-generation USAn whose ancestry is entirely of the latter.) Gli italoamericani are a classic example of “last ones up the ladder pull the ladder up behind them.” Well within my parents’ lifetimes (NB both born in the USA) “their people” weren’t even considered white by the whites who were already here (including the not-all-that-long-off-the-boat-themselves Irish) – and yet…. Che vergogna!
Brachiator
Breaking news story
Trump will try to take credit for this.
Bonnie
I think trump’s comments were not only racist but sexist, too. However, no one is talking about that. If the four had been minority men, would he have made that comment. I don’t think so; but that is just one woman’s opinion.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
There are corpses buried in that yard.
Guaranteed. ?
Brachiator
@Bonnie:
Trump’s comments and actions are attacks on all non-white people, not just four women of color. But Trump gets extra pleasure from attacking women, especially women of color who dare to defy him, or even who simply stand up to him.
Miss Bianca
@Uncle Cosmo: Yep. They haven’t been white quite as long as the Irish – and now Poles and Slavs and (some) Jewish people are all following them up the ladder of Whiteness.
J R in WV
@jl:
Congresswoman Ocazio-Cortez was not involved in the 2016 elections past voting. She ran in 2018, a Blue Wave election that most of us hope is replicated next year.
I don’t think the immigrant bashing is helping Trump nor the Rs at all any more, as the coverage of the Concentration Camps around the country is pretty strong. And AOC is looking like a pretty good politician to me, old retired white guy capitialist that I am.
debbie
@Bonnie:
Trump wasn’t shy about badmouthing Sadiq Khan and his family back in 2016. Doubt he’s softened that stance since then.
The women were easy and available targets. Clearly, he wants to paint the entire “Democrat” Party as being them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he widens his attack to include Cory Booker or other men of color in the government.
Harry Hamid
It’s still hard for me to believe that we elected someone this transparently racist.
But some Republican in the House who voted against this today is going to run for President someday.